Meanings
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1
noun
The act of intentionally killing oneself.
The charity offers support to people who are thinking about suicide.
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2
noun
A particular case of a person killing themselves.
Police investigated the death as a possible suicide.
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3
noun
An action that brings disaster on yourself or your group.
Raising prices now would be political suicide.
Thesaurus
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…