''parricide'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''parricide'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20250716195445-00-⌔

parricide - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

parricide (plural parricides)

• Someone who kills a relative, especially a parent.
  • ✤ Synonym: (when referring to a parent) parenticide
  • ✤ I told him the reuenging Gods,/’Gainst Paricides did all the thunder bend […]¹
• Someone who commits treason.

Noun

parricide (countable and uncountable, plural parricides)

• The killing of a relative, especially a parent.
  • ✤ Synonym: (when referring to a parent) parenticide
  • ✤ The new accusation brought by Urban against Manfred of murdering his sister-in-law’s embassador – it may be observed that, tacitly, he acquits him of parricide, fratricide, and nepoticide – requires a little explanation.²
  • ✤ The production of Schiller’s ‘Don Carlos’ was long forbidden, because Don Carlos loved his stepmother; in ‘The Robbers,’ the Father was turned into an uncle, and a stupendous effect was produced by the cry of “Unclecide,” substituted for Parricide.³
• The killing of a ruler, or other authority figure; treason.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈpæ.ɹɪ.saɪd/
• Audio (Southern England): 🔊

Etymology 1

From Middle French parricide, from Latin parricīda, of uncertain origin, perhaps from pār (“equal”).⁴

Etymology 2

From Middle French parricide, from Latin parricīdium, of uncertain origin, perhaps from pār (“equal”).⁵

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

1. c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]: ↩

2. 1856, Mrs. William Busk, Mediæval Popes, Emperors, Kings, and Crusaders: Or, Germany, Italy and Palestine, from A.D. 1125 to A.D. 1268 ‎${}^{[1]}$, volume IV, London: Hookham and Sons, →OCLC, page 294: ↩

3. 1861 July 27, The Athenæum: Journal of English and Foreign Literature, Science, and the Fine Arts, number 1761, London, page 116, column 1: ↩

4. “parricide, n.${}^1$”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000. ↩

5. “parricide, n.${}^2$”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000. ↩

Link to original

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