Added 9 October 2026
suicide
/ˈs(j)uːɪˌsaɪd/ noun
In Latin: suīcīdium First recorded: 1643 Wiktionary
noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about suicide at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
- The act of intentionally killing oneself.
- A particular instance of a person intentionally killing oneself, or of multiple people doing so.
- A person who has intentionally killed themself.
verb
- To intentionally kill oneself.
- To kill (someone) and make their death appear to have been a suicide rather than a homicide .
- To destroy or self-destruct.
Origin
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.
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)