Word: suicide Part of Speech: noun Etymology: 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. Displaced native Middle English seolf-cwale from Old English selfcwalu (literally “self-slaughter”), after which suicide may have been modelled, or calqued (compare manuscript). 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. Pronunciation: /ˈs(j)uːɪˌsaɪd/, /ˈsuɪˌsaɪd/, /ˈsʉːɪˌsɑed/, [ˈsʉːəˌsɑe̯d], /ˌsuːɪˈsaɪd/ 1. The act of intentionally killing oneself. Labels: uncountable Example: As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide. Example: The cowardice of suicide was abhorrent to him. 2. A particular instance of a person intentionally killing oneself, or of multiple people doing so. Labels: countable Example: There had been half a dozen mysterious suicides which had been investigated by Scotland Yard. Example: In this way the Heaven's Gate community were not only escaping the threat of 'global destruction', they were hurling themselves directly into 'the lap of God', using their suicide as a way of 'bridging the chasm' between an earthly world which had no future and 'a thousand years of unmitigated peace'. 3. A person who has intentionally killed themself. Labels: countable Example: "I remember one suicide," she said to Philip, "who threw himself into the Thames." Example: Poets have been ill-fated in Russia ever since the Revolution: Vladimir Mayakovsky and Sergei Esenin, among the two great poets of the Revolutionary era, were suicides; […] 4. An action that could cause the literal or figurative death of a person or organization, although death may not be the aim of the action. Labels: countable, figuratively, uncountable Example: political suicide Example: […] I do not want the Congress or the country to commit fiscal suicide on the installment plan. 5. A beverage combining all available flavors at a soda fountain. Labels: US, countable, slang Example: You could sit at a corner and order your Suicide, and one of two twin brothers who worked there would hold an old-fashioned soda glass, a heavy tall V-shaped one with a round foot at the bottom, and go down the line with one shot of everything—cherry, lemon, Coke, and chocolate syrups—before adding soda water. Example: Using Coca-Cola as a base, a suicide called for the addition of every other flavor available. 6. A diabolo trick where one of the sticks is released and allowed to rotate 360° round the diabolo until it is caught by the hand that released it. Labels: countable, uncountable 7. A run comprising a series of sprints of increasing lengths, each followed immediately by a return to the start, with no pause between one sprint and the next. Labels: countable Example: The coach makes us run suicides at the end of each basketball practice. 8. A children's game of throwing a ball against a wall and at other players, who are eliminated by being struck. Labels: countable, uncountable 9. Pertaining to a suicide bombing. Labels: attributive, countable, uncountable Example: suicide belt Example: suicide vest