fratricide

Etymology

In the sense of the killer it is borrowed from Middle French fratricide^[2][3] and directly borrowed from Latin frātricīda (“brother-killer”),^[2][3][4][5] formed from frāter (“brother”) and -cīda (“killer”).^[2][3][5] The noun for the act is again French,^[6][7] and in part borrowed from Late Latin frātricīdium (“the killing of a brother”),^[8][7][9] with -cīdium (“a killing”) in place of the agent suffix.^[2][5] Both Latin suffixes come from caedō (“to kill, cut down”),^[4][5] which Etymonline traces to Proto-Indo-European *kae-id- (“to strike”);^[4] frāter goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bhrāter- (“brother”), the source of brother.^[10][4] Old English had other words for the same things, among them broðorbana (“one who kills a brother”) and broðorcwealm (“act of killing a brother”).^[4][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who kills his or her own brother: about 1450, in the Mirour Saluacioun, where Absalom is called a fratricide for killing his brother.^[6][12] Barnhart dates it before 1500,^[13] and Etymonline to the mid-15th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense "the killing of one's brother" followed about a century later, first recorded in Richard Grafton's chronicle of 1569;^[6] Barnhart dates it 1568 and Etymonline to the 1560s.^[2][4] In law the word also covers the killing of a sister,^[6][14] and Black's legal dictionary compares sororicide.^[14] Johnson (1755) gave only "the murder of a brother", with the French and Latin forms as its source.^[15] Merriam-Webster Unabridged extends it to the killing of someone who stands in a brother-like relation, such as a fellow countryman.^[3] Two military senses arose in the late 20th century: from 1972, the destruction or deflection of a nuclear warhead by the blast of one launched before it at a nearby target;^[6][3] and casualties inflicted by an army's own or allied forces, that is, friendly fire, recorded from 1986.^[6][10]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – a person who kills his own brother.^[6][12]
• 1569 – the killing of one's brother.^[6] Barnhart's first record is from 1568.^[2]
• 1972 – the premature detonation or deflection of a nuclear warhead caused by the blast of an earlier one.^[6]
• 1986 – casualties caused by an army's own or allied forces; friendly fire.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who kills his or her own brother or sister.^{[3][10][6][14]}
2. The act of killing one's own brother or sister: The chronicle opens with a fratricide.^[3][10][14]
3. (military) The accidental killing of one's own or allied troops; friendly fire.^[10][6]
4. (military) The destruction of incoming nuclear warheads aimed at closely spaced targets by the effects of the first warhead to detonate.^[3][6]

Word family

• fratricidal

Related words

• homicide
• patricide
• regicide
• sororicide
• fraternal
• fraternity
• brother

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
13. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b c d Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.