suicidium

Concepts

suicide

hara-kiri

self-slaughter

Dutch act

Translations

suicidio

zelfmoord

suicidio

αυτοκτονία

suicídio

suicide

Selbstmord

Freitod

suïcidi

Suizid

zelfdoding

انتحار

αυτοχειρία

intihar

Etymology

From suī (genitive reflexive pronoun) + -cīdium (“act of killing or murder”). Its use in modern Romance languages and New Latin is attested later than, and perhaps ultimately from, English suicide. Suicida (“self-killer”), from suī + -cīda (“killer”), is attested in Walter of Saint Victor's Contra quatuor labyrinthos Franciae (c. 1177), but both suicidium and suicida were otherwise unfound throughout the Middle Ages.