Vandalism
Patti read about acts of vandalism being perpetrated in the Old Town area of Traverse City and wrote to ask about the origin of the word.
It represents a very deep tribal memory. The Vandals were a Germanic tribe that swept across Europe and northern Africa as the Roman Empire was crumbling in the 5th century. They entered Rome itself in 455 and spent a couple of weeks trashing the city and carrying off everything that wasn’t bolted down.
Their reputation for looting and defacing led to the generic use of the term: wanton destruction or spoiling of another’s property. While the Romans had a word for Vandal, vandalism came into English through French in the 18th century.
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