parricidium

Forms

parricīdium n (genitive parricīdiī or parricīdī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from parricīda (“murderer of a near relative”) with the suffix -ium.^[2][3][1] The origin of ⟨parricīda⟩ is uncertain: de Vaan thinks the first part was ⟨*pāri-⟩, with ⟨-rr-⟩ as in Iuppiter, and finds pār (“equal”) the most obvious source, giving “who kills an equal”; he rejects a link with Ancient Greek πηός (pēós, “kinsman by marriage”).^[4] The second part is ⟨-cīda⟩ “killer”, from caedō (“to cut, kill”).^[1][4] Ancient writers derived it from the killing of a parent or of an equal.^[3] The OLD notes that the sense “murder of one's father” owes much to a mistaken link with pater (“father”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus calls a man “full to the brim of fraud, crime, parricide and perjury” in the Rudens.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the murder of a near relation, especially of one's father or parents, as Cicero's “the parricide of his father and uncle”, and of other kin, as in an unnamed tragedy.^[2][5] It is also murder or assassination, usually of a friend or superior, and especially of the head of the state: Valerius Maximus says Cassius should never be named without “public parricide”, and Suetonius reports that the Ides of March were named Parricīdium.^[2] With patriae it is the betrayal or ruin of one's country, as in Cicero's Pro Sulla, and alone treason or rebellion.^[2][5]

Köbler finds it in the capitularies, councils and the Frisian and Visigothic laws.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the murder of a father and of treason.^[2][5][6]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius of the Ides of March.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The murder of a near relation, especially of a parent: parricide.^[2][5][1]
2. Murder, assassination, especially of the head of state;^[2] (name of the Ides of March).^[2]
3. (with patriae) Betrayal of one's country;^[2][5] treason, rebellion.^[2]

Word family

• parricīdālis

Related words

• parricīda
• homicīdium
• caedō
• English parricide

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de