suicide

Pronunciation: /ˈsuɪˌsaɪd/

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: B2 — Upper-Intermediate

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun the act of killing yourself
  2. noun a person who kills himself intentionally

Etymology

First attested in Thomas Browne's Religio Medici (1643) in noun sense 1, ostensibly from New Latin suīcīdium, from suī (genitive reflexive pronoun) + -cīdium (“act of killing or murder”), but often believed to have originated in English before entering Latin. Displaced native Middle English seolf-cwale from Old English selfcwalu (literally “self-slaughter”), after which suicide may have been modelled, or calqued (compare manuscript). Noun sense 3 is perhaps by analogy with words like homicide, patricide (see -cide), or, although unlikely, from Medieval Latin suīcīda; see the Etymology section at suīcīdium.

In classic literature

Synonyms

self-destruction, self-annihilation

Semantic network

Broader (hypernyms)
killing
Narrower (hyponyms)
assisted suicide, suttee, harakiri, felo-de-se

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