"bellic"

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED has _bellic_, "Of war; warlike" from 1627 and 1680 only. It's marked "Obs."

  2004 Dominic Keown, in Wendy Everett, ed. _European Identity in Cinema_ (Bristol: Intellect, 2005) 73: As a consequence, the overall impression in this bellic situation is, paradoxically, one of convergence and productive cohabitation.

  _Cohabitation_, BTW, means something like "cooperation."  Dr. Keown teaches in the Department of Spanish and Portugeuse, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.

  There are "pre-" and "post-bellic" too:

  1930 Padraic Colum _Cross Roads in Ireland_ (N.Y.: Macmillan) 110: In those mild pre-bellic days the granting of a measure of self-government to Ireland was considered to be an event of major political importance.

  1979 Dan Ciobanu, in Antonio Cassese, ed.  _UN Law /Fundamental Rights_ (Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands:Sijthoff & Nordhoff) 43: The postbellic experience of military alliances has led to the accumulation by the two Superpowers of an enormous amount of political influence.

  1997 in Gabriel Sheffer, ed. _Strategic Aspects of U.S.-Israeli Relations_  (London: Frank Cass) 207: Those middle wagons in the train of history, such as Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Turkey, are neither pre-bellic as are the least advanced countries, nor post-bellic as in the case of the most advanced.

  And, of course, "nonbellic":

  1994 Robin Fox _The Challenge of Anthropology_ (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction) 116: Many who have been touted as nonbellic, such as the Pueblo Indians...and the Bushmen, in fact turn out to be, or to have been, formidable warriors when the occasion demanded it.

  JL


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