Mayhem

During the 13th century, maim and mayhem were interchangeable words deriving from the same Anglo-Norman roots maime or mayhem meaning to inflict crippling injury. Mayhem has retained this meaning in law, where to cause mayhem is to inflict serious bodily harm. Outside of this legal meaning, mayhem generally means disorder, disturbance or chaos and these figurative meanings all date from the late 1400s.