assassin

Pronunciation

• IPA: /a.sa.sɛ̃/^[1]

Forms

assassin m (plural assassins, feminine assassine)^[1] Old French harsasis (1195), hassissis, assacis, hassissin and other forms for the members of the Syrian sect.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian assassino (“hired killer”), also “assessino”, used in that sense by Dante early in the 14th century.^{[2][3][5][6][7]} Older forms, frequent in Medieval Latin, Old French and Old Occitan, named the members of an Ismaili sect of Syria who killed Christian and Muslim leaders on their master's orders; they came straight from Arabic at the time of the Crusades.^[2][3]

The source of the Arabic word is disputed.^[2][1] Since Silvestre de Sacy (1809) it has been explained as Arabic حشاشين (ḥaššāšīn, “hashish users”), from حشيش (ḥašīš, “hashish”), the killers' fury being put down to the drug;^[2][3][8][1] Rey, the Grand Robert and the Petit Robert prefer عساسين (ʿassāsīn, “guards”), the plural of “ʿassās” “guard”, since a religious order would hardly have called its members hashish users.^[2][5][6] Ménage had connected it with Arabic “hassa” “to cut to pieces”.^[2]

Cognate with Occitan assassin, Spanish asesino and Italian assassino.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Joinville (13th century) writes of the assacis whom the Old Man of the Mountain sent to kill; the modern sense, a hired killer, is first found in Rémy Belleau (1560).^[4][2][3][8]

Semantic evolution

Already in the Middle Ages the name of the sect was used figuratively, as by the troubadours, for a follower blindly devoted to a master, and for blind faithfulness in love.^[2][3] In the 16th century, borrowed again from Italian, assassin meant a hired killer and then anyone who kills with premeditation; it was also used where modern French says assassinat (1547, with assassiner 1546).^[2][3][5]

The cry à l'assassin ! calls for help, and by extension a doctor or other person blamed for someone's death is un assassin.^[8][4] In classical French an assassin was also a black beauty spot worn under the eye, and in poetry des yeux assassins were killingly beautiful eyes.^[4][8][9]

Timeline

• 1195 – Harsasis.^[2]
• 13th century – Assacis in Joinville.^[4]
• early 14th century – Italian assassino “hired killer” (Dante).^[2][5]
• 1546–1547 – Assassiner, assassinat.^[3]
• 1560 – Assassin “hired killer” (Belleau).^[3][2][8]
• 1809 – Silvestre de Sacy connects the name with hashish.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A murderer, a person who kills with premeditation; an assassin.^[6][9]
2. À l'assassin !: a cry for help from someone in danger of being killed.^[6][9]
3. A person held responsible for someone's death.^[8][4]
4. (historical) A black beauty spot worn under the eye.^[9][4]

Adjective

1. (literary) Murderous^[6][4]; (figurative) killingly seductive: œillade assassine.^[6][4]

Related words

• assassiner
• assassinat
• haschich
• English assassin

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 19, 69a
8. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)