Etymologically
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homicide

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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