homicidium

Forms

homicīdium n (genitive homicīdiī or homicīdī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin homicīda (“man-slayer”) with the suffix -ium, as parricīdium goes with parricīda.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary analyses it as from Latin homō + -cīdium.^[1] Isidore of Seville explained it as made of homō and caedēs “slaughter”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first, and often, in the elder Seneca's declamations, then once each in Valerius Maximus, Petronius and Pliny the Elder and three times in Seneca the philosopher.^[3] Köbler's first source is Seneca.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it post-Classical; its sense was always the killing of a human being, manslaughter or murder.^[4][3] Quintilian uses it of a charge of homicide in court, and Tacitus has it in the Germania.^[4][6] The TLL notes that it was usually done with a weapon and only rarely by poison, and that the plural appears from Seneca on;^[3] Tertullian lists the sword, poison and magic spells as its means.^[3] A feminine homicīdia is found in an Old Latin Bible manuscript.^[3]

In the Church it meant murder.^[7] Medieval Latin also used it for the fine paid for a killing and for slaughter in war;^[8][9] English legal writers such as Glanvill distinguished secret killing (murdrum) from simple homicīdium.^[9] It survives in Italian omicidio.^[6]

Timeline

• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca the philosopher uses it three times.^[3][5]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of a charge of homicide.^[4][5]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian lists the ways a homicide is done.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Homicide, manslaughter, murder.^[2][4][3]
2. (Medieval Latin) The fine paid for a killing.^[8][9]
3. (Medieval Latin) Slaughter, carnage (in war).^[8][9]

Word family

• homicīdiālis

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b c d Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press