fratricidium

Forms

frātricīdium n (genitive frātricīdiī or frātricīdī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin frātricīda (“murderer of a brother”) + -ium,^[2][3][4] or, as Wiktionary analyses it, from frāter (“brother”) and the suffix -cīdium.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It belongs to Church Latin^[2] and is first found in Tertullian (c. 160–220 AD),^[5] who writes that the first crime, homicide, was inaugurated in a fratricide (primum scelus homicidium, in fratricidio dedicatum).^[3]

Semantic evolution

Jerome, Salvian and Fulgentius use it in the same sense, the murder of one's brother.^[2][3] In the early medieval law codes it stands beside the killing of a father and of other kin: a chapter of the Laws of the Alamanni is headed “on patricides and fratricides”.^[6][5] The capitularies use it too,^[6][5] and it is found in medieval charters.^[7]

Italian continues it as fratricidio.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian calls the first homicide a fratricide.^[3][5]
• c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses it.^[2][5]
• 712–725? – The Laws of the Alamanni name fratricides in a chapter heading.^[6][5]
• 1358 – A Hungarian charter speaks of the crime of fratricide.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The murder of one's brother, fratricide.^[2][9][10]

Related words

• frater

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
10. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill