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homicide

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Etymology and origin of the English word homicide

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1230, Ancrene Riwle
Borrowed from
Old French homicide via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin homō,caedō

Pronunciation

  • /ˈhɑ.məˌsaɪ̯d/, /ˈhoʊ.məˌsaɪ̯d/[1]
  • UK: /ˈhɒm.ɪˌsaɪ̯d/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English homicide, borrowed from Old French homicide (“murder, manslaughter”) (Anglo-Norman also omicide),[2][3][4] a learned borrowing of Latin homicīdium (“manslaughter”).[3][4][5] The Latin noun is formed on homicīda (“murderer”), from the shortened stem of homō (“man, human being”) and the ending -cīda (“killer”), from caedō (“to cut down, kill”).[2][4][5][6] The sense "person who kills" came separately from French homicide and Latin homicīda (Anglo-Norman from about 1141).[2][3][7] Etymonline notes that the killing and the killer, distinct in Latin, have one form in French and English.[4] In Anglo-Norman the noun for the killing is found from 1121–35.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The killing of a human being, especially as a crime: c. 1230, in the Ancrene Riwle.[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

The agent sense, a person who kills another, followed about 1350 according to the OED[2] and about 1375, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, according to Barnhart;[3] the OED now labels it dated.[2] The Wycliffite Bible (c. 1384) has it as an adjective, murderous.[2] Johnson (1755) gave "murder; manquelling" first and "a murderer; a manslayer" second.[8] Lawyers distinguish justifiable, excusable and unlawful homicide.[9] In North America from 1934 homicide is also the police division that investigates killings,[2][10] and a verb, to kill, has existed since 1543 but is rare.[2]

Timeline

  • 1121–35 – Anglo-Norman homicide, the crime of killing.[7]
  • c. 1230 – the killing of a human being.[2][3]
  • c. 1350 – a killer;[2] c. 1375 in Barnhart.[3]
  • c. 1384 – adjective, murderous.[2]
  • 1543 – the verb, to kill.[2]
  • 1934 – (North America) the police homicide division.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The killing of one person by another: The coroner ruled the death a homicide.
  2. (law) Such a killing as a legal category, including murder and manslaughter.
  3. (chiefly North American) The police department that investigates killings.
  4. (dated) A person who kills another; a murderer.

Word family

  • homicidal

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Homicide.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/homicide. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·