murder

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈmɜː.də/, US /ˈmɝː.dɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English morthre, murthre, murdre,^[2][3] inherited from Old English morðor (“secret killing, unlawful killing; mortal sin; torment”),^[4][2] from Proto-Germanic *murthran,^[4][2][5] from a suffixed form of Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to rub away, harm; to die”),^[4][2] the root also of Latin mors “death”, the source of mortal.^[6][2] It is cognate with Gothic maurþr, and a variant form gave Old Saxon and Old Frisian morth, Dutch moord, German Mord and Old Norse morð.^[4][2] The spelling with d probably shows the influence of Anglo-French murdre, Old French mordre, and Medieval Latin murdrum, themselves from the Germanic word;^[4][2][5] the form murther lasted into the 19th century.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English, about 725 in Beowulf,^[2] with the OED's first example of criminal homicide from 971.^[7] The verb is from about 1200.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Old English morþor meant a secret killing.^[4][2] In Old Norse custom, morð, secret slaughter by night or of a sleeping man, was a heinous crime, while vig, an acknowledged slaying, was no disgrace, though it called for vengeance or compensation.^[4] Chaucer's “Mordre wol out” in the Nun's Priest's Tale (about 1386) made the idea proverbial.^[4][6] From the late 13th century it could mean terrible slaughter without moral blame.^[7] Murder as a cry for help is from about 1470,^[7] and cry blue murder, from blue as the colour of harmful things, from the 18th century.^[6] The verb's sense “to spoil by bad execution” is from the 1640s,^[4] the weakened sense “a very unpleasant situation” from 1878,^[4] and the inverted slang sense “something excellent” by 1940.^[4][7]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English morþor.^[2]
• 971 – criminal homicide.^[7]
• c. 1200 – verb, to kill.^[4]
• c. 1386 – murder will out.^[4]
• c. 1470 – a cry for help.^[7]
• 1640s – verb, to spoil.^[4]
• 1878 – an unpleasant situation.^[4]
• 1940 – something excellent (US slang).^[4][7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The unlawful, deliberate killing of one person by another.
2. (informal) Something very difficult or unpleasant: the traffic was murder.

Verb

1. To kill a person unlawfully and with premeditation.
2. To spoil by bad performance: murder a song.
3. (informal) To defeat utterly; to trounce.

Word family

• murderer
• murderess

Related words

• mortal
• mortgage
• mortuary
• murderous
• manslaughter

Usage notes

In law, murder is killing with malice aforethought, distinguished from manslaughter.^[8][7]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin