parricide

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French parricide,^[2][3][4] from Latin parricīda (“a person who kills a near relative”) in the sense of the killer and parricīdium (“the killing of a near relative”) in the sense of the act.^[2][3][5][6] French has the noun for the act from about 1160 and for the killer from 1213,^[2] and Anglo-Norman has the killer from 1212;^[7] Etymonline dates the French sense of the act only to the 16th century.^[4] The Latin noun for the act is formed from the noun for the killer.^[2][8] Both are recorded from Plautus on, and an older spelling is pāricīda.^[9][3] The second element is -cīda (“killer”), from caedō (“to kill, cut down”),^[4][8][6] from Proto-Indo-European *kae-id- (“to strike”).^[4] The first element is of uncertain origin.^[2][10][8] Barnhart and the American Heritage Dictionary explain it as a word for a relative, Latin *pārus,^[3][11] and several dictionaries compare Ancient Greek πηός (pēós, “kinsman by marriage”), Doric παός (pāós).^{[3][8][5][12]} The OED finds that link not altogether satisfactory,^[2] and de Vaan rejects it, since the Greek word has no known etymology and Latin shows no other trace of such a word for a relative; he prefers pār (“equal”), so that the compound first meant "who kills an equal".^[9][13] Classical Latin authors came to associate the word with parēns (“parent”) and pater (“father”).^[2][14][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who kills a near relative: about 1545, in a work by C. Langton.^[2][5] Barnhart dates this sense to 1554 and Etymonline to the 1550s.^[3][4] The act of such a killing follows in 1559, in T. Paynell's translation of Erasmus's Complaint of Peace;^[2] Barnhart dates it to 1570 and Etymonline to the 1560s.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The Latin words already covered more than family murder: they could also name the killing of a ruler and the betrayal of one's country, and English took over these extended uses.^[2][14] Johnson (1755) defined the killer as one who destroys his father, or anyone to whom he owes particular reverence, such as his country or patron, and the act as the murder of a father or of one to whom reverence is due.^[16] The association of the Latin word with pater is reflected in the narrowing of the English meaning, so that the near relative is now usually a father.^[2] Before these borrowings, Old English had fæderslaga for the killer of a father.^[4] An adjective, "of or relating to parricide", appears about 1608, probably partly after French.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1545 – a person who kills a near relative.^[2][5]
• 1559 – the act of killing a near relative.^[2]
• c. 1608 – adjective, of or relating to parricide.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who kills a parent or other near relative.^[12][5][2]
2. The act of killing a parent or other near relative: The trial turned on a charge of parricide.^[12][5][2]
3. A person who kills the ruler of his or her country, or someone who stands in a father's place, or who commits treason against the country; also, this act.^[5][2][14]

Adjective

1. Of or relating to parricide or a parricide; parricidal.^[2]

Word family

• parricidal
• parricidally

Related words

• patricide
• matricide
• homicide
• -cide

Usage notes

In legal codes that distinguish between kinds of murder, parricide may carry further legal consequences, for example in succession to property.^[2] The usual classical Latin words for the killer of a father and for that killing were these; patricide rests on a presumed Latin form.^[4]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t 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 f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.