a. rare. [f. L. tēterrimus most foul, superl. of tæter (tēter) foul + -OUS.] In phrase teterrimous cause, after L. teterrima belli causa ‘the most foul cause of war,’ i.e., woman (Horace, Sat., I. iii. 107).

1

[1704.  Swift, T. Tub, ix. The very same Principle that influences a Bully to break the Windows of a Whore, who has jilted him, naturally stirs up a Great Prince to raise mighty Armies, and dream of nothing but Sieges, Battles, and Victories.

        ——Teterrima belli
Causa————

2

1823.  Byron, Juan, IX. lv. Oh thou ‘teterrima causa’ of all ‘belli.’

3

1845.  Ford, Handbk. Spain, I. iii. 362. A Christian woman now was the teterrima causa of the Moslem downfall.]

4

1853.  Derbyites, etc. (1854), No. 14, 14 May, 128. Captain Magan, the teterrimous occasion of the wars of the week, enters in a red shirt!

5

1864.  Daily Tel., 24 Aug. I pronounce Orangeism the teterrimous cause of the war that has been waged for two weeks past in the heart of the town.

6