principicide
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Latin prī̆nceps, prī̆ncipis + -cide.
Noun
[edit]principicide (countable and uncountable, plural principicides) (rare)
- (countable and uncountable) The killing of a prince.
- 1919, Eugene Pivany, “Appendix B. Roumania’s Territorial Claims. [From a treatise entitled “Roumania in Hungary,” by Eugene Pivany.]”, in Treaty of Peace with Germany: Extracts from Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate; Sixty-Sixth Congress, First Session, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, page 989:
- The Roumanians hold the world record for principicide, or the assassination of princes, with Serbia—whose record in this regard is not to be despised, either—a bad second.
- 1997, Julian Bennett, Trajan, Optimus Princeps: A Life and Times, Bloomington, Ind, Indianapolis, Ind.: Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 36:
- Both of these stories, that he was exiled or placed in terror of his life, belong to a recognized genre invented to justify the principicide and yet continue the imperial system.
- 2005, M[eirion] J[ames] Trow, chapter 3, in Maxwell’s Mask (Peter ‘Mad Max’ Maxwell Series; 11), London: Allison & Busby, →ISBN, page 27:
- It was a terrible, but all too excusable crime, principicide.
- (countable) One who kills a prince.
- 1868 April 21, “Victoria. [From our Melbourne Correspondent.]”, in The Express & Telegraph, late edition, volume V, number 1,324, Adelaide, S.A., published 1868 April 24, page [3], column 3:
- The law has been vindicated, and the outraged feelings of the people of these colonies have been avenged by the execution this morning of the wretched man—the would-be principicide [Henry O’Farrell].
- 1868, Frederic R[ichard] Lees, “The Sermon in Relation to Facts”, in True versus False: Bible-Temperance: An Analysis of Vicar Jeffcock’s Sermon on “The Temperance Movement and Christian Liberty.”, London: Pitman, […]. Warwick Savage, […]; Dawson, […]; Wilbraham, […]; G. Turner, […], page 15:
- As it was not the ‘bullet,’ or the ‘pistol,’ or the ‘powder,’ that animated the Principicide, so it is not the ‘sumptuous dinner’—not the fish, flesh, fowl, and good plum-pudding, that tends to increase the appetite for them.
- 1885, F[rederic] R[ichard] Lees, “The Sermon in Relation to Facts”, in Essays Critical and Controversial Showing the Harmony of Bible-Truth with True Scientific Temperance, volume 5, London: […] National Temperance Publication Depot […], page 256:
- As it was not the ‘bullet,’ or the ‘pistol,’ or the ‘powder,’ that animated the would-be Principicide, so it is not the ‘consumptuous dinner’—not the fish, flesh, fowl, and good plum-pudding, that tends to increase the appetite for them.
- 1881 July 18, St. James’s Gazette; quoted in “prĭn-çĭp’-ĭ-çíde”, in [Robert Hunter], editor, The Encyclopædic Dictionary: A New and Original Work of Reference to All the Words in the English Language, […], volume V, part II, London; Paris; New York, N.Y.; Melbourne, Vic.: Cassell & Company, Limited, 1886, page 660, column 2:
- The chances of immediate escape for a principicide must be taken as very small.
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]the killing of a prince
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