sinucide

Forms

a se sinucide (first-person singular present mă sinucid, past participle sinucis), 3rd conjugation, reflexive^[1]

Etymology

It is a compound from Romanian sine (“oneself”) + ucide (“to kill”), modelled on French se suicider.^[1][2][3][4] ucide is from Latin occīdō (“to kill”).^[5] MDN gives only the French model.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and Tiktin date the first record to 1832, I. Golescu's manuscript dictionary Condica limbii rumânești.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

A text of 1836 says that Decebalus was defeated and killed himself, „a se sinucide”, and Asachi used s-a sinucis “he killed himself”.^[4] Damé still marked the verb as a neologism in the 1890s.^[7] It is conjugated like ucide.^[3] The noun sinucigaș “a suicide”, formed on the same pattern after French suicidé, is as old.^[2]

Timeline

• 1832 – sinucide and sinucigaș in Golescu's Condica.^[2][3]
• 1836 – a se sinucide in a text on Decebalus.^[4]
• 1893–1895 – Damé labels it a neologism.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive) To commit suicide, to take one's own life.^[1][8]

Word family

• sinucidere

Related words

• sinucigaș
• ucide
• sine
• suicid

Usage notes

Synonyms are a se omorî and a-și face seama; the bookish a se suicide is rare.^[1][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1023
2. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 900
3. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. sinucide
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. sinucide
5. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. ucide
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. sinucide
7. ^ a b Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. 2, s.v. sinucide
8. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org