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. See Wiktionary.
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 Wiktionary’s 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.
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with suicide, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *swé ‘self’
- such ← swelċ ← *swalīk ← *swalīkaz ← *swa
- self ← salve ← *selbaz ← *selbʰ-
- solo ← sōlus ← *swelos
- sole ← sol ← sōlus ← *swelos
- idiot ← idiote ← idiote ← idiota ← ἰδιώτης
- solitary ← solitarie ← sōlitārius ← solitas ← solus
- sans ← saunz ← sine
- solitude ← sōlitūdō ← sōlus ← *swelos
- solitaire ← sōlitārius ← solitas ← solus ← *swelos
- swain ← swayn ← sweġen ← sveinn ← *swainaz
- desolate ← desolaten ← dēsōlātus ← dēsōlō ← sōlus
- desolation ← desolacioun ← desolacion ← dēsōlātiō ← dēsōlō
23 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
noun The act of intentionally killing oneself.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “suicide”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / suicide