The politically and emotionally charged term ''terrorism'' comes from the French terrorisme, which means terror, great fear and dread, and is related to the Latin verb terrere, to frighten.
Although no group or individual has claimed responsibility (yet) for killing three people and wounding hundreds, there is no doubt that the Boston marathon bombs have created great fear for Americans in particular and sport enthusiasts in general.
The blast of the two bombs that exploded on Monday close to the finish line devastated the lives of many spectators and competitors nearby, but the damage they caused will be ongoing and far-reaching for many years to come.
Fear and paranoia will go hand in hand with attending any significant sports events for some time, even though researchers suggest the threat of terrorism has been exaggerated in the media since 9/11.
Michael Atkinson and Kevin Young wrote an article titled ''Shadowed by the corpse of war: Sport spectacles and the spirit of terrorism'' in the International Review for the Sociology of Sport last year, and noted that prior to 2001, there was limited research on terrorism and sport.
Sport sociologists interested in sport violence, crime and deviance had sporadically reviewed major cases of military or protest-related ''terrorism'' associated with the Olympics in Berlin in 1936, Mexico in 1968, Munich in 1972 and Atlanta in 1996.
Since the early 2000s, however, there has been a groundswell of research on terrorism and sports mega-events, including investigations into the impact of terrorism fears on risk management strategies at high-profile sports events, and how media coverage of the ''threat'' of terrorism promotes concern about Western cultural ways of living posed by fundamentalist terrorists.
While everyone focused on global mega-events such as world cups, and the Commonwealth and Olympic Games as a target for terrorism, some individual or group slipped under the radar and targeted the Boston Marathon, with just over 22,000 finishers at a time when the number of people finishing or watching the event peaked.
While officials and the United States Government try to determine the motives for this attack, organisers of global or culturally significant sports events will go into overdrive regarding security.
The experience of international (and to some extent domestic) travel has become heavily precautionary post 9/11, and so, too, will the experience of attending a sports event.
In the past, when entering a marathon event, participants anticipated feeling extreme exhaustion and perhaps elation at completing this major test of endurance.
Now, people will think twice about filling out an entry form or attending major sports events and they may anticipate their worst nightmare.
The best way to fight the terror associated with these suprise attacks is to not let it impact on your psyche - but that is easier said than done.
Despite what the researchers are saying, the perceived threat of being killed at a major sports event no longer seems inflated.
The death of an 8-year-old boy innocently waiting to give his father a hug at the finish line is enough to reignite a fear of terrorism in most people's hearts and minds.
