English
suicide
Origin unknown. Suicide is first attested in 1643, ostensibly from New Latin suīcīdium (suī ‘of oneself’ + -cīdium ‘killing’), though possibly coined in English.
first attested First attested in Thomas Browne's Religio Medici (1643) in noun sense 1, ostensibly from New Latin suīcīdium, from suī (genitive reflexive pronoun) + -cīdium (“act of killing or murder”), but often believed to have originated in English before entering Latin (as stated in the etymology)
The story
First attested in Thomas Browne's Religio Medici (1643) in noun sense 1, ostensibly from New Latin suīcīdium, from suī (genitive reflexive pronoun) + -cīdium (‘act of killing or murder’), but often believed to have originated in English before entering Latin. Noun sense 3 is perhaps by analogy with words like homicide, patricide (see -cide), or, although unlikely, from Medieval Latin suīcīda; see the Etymology section at suīcīdium.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *swé ‘self’
such, self, solo, sole, idiot, solitary, sans, solitude, solitaire, swain, desolate, desolation, idiocy, sullen, solus, sere, 19 more
Today it means
noun The act of intentionally killing oneself.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / suicide