Amicicide

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:37 PM -0700 9/27/05, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>I've never heard of this term before, but  AM i kuh side sounds okay
>to me. On the other hand, since  Latin "amicus" stresses the second
>syllable,  uh MEE kuh side  is probably more "correct" historically.
>
>My preference has the advantage of sounding enough like "amicable"
>to help explain the meaning.

One problem would be the velar softening suggested by the spelling
"amicicide".  The above pronunciation would be fine for "amicacide"
or "amicocide", but I think "amicicide" would have to be something
like "uh MEE suh side", which seems rather opaque and not
particularly evocative of "amicable".

LH

>A now frequent term is "fratricide," which seems to offer no
>pronunciation difficulties.
>
>JL
>
>
>Bill & Diana Sowers <bsowers at COX.NET> wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Bill & Diana Sowers
>Subject: Amicicide
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Dear ADS-L....
>
>Please forgive the intrusion on your list but I'm wondering if you could
>help me. If I'm asking a question that isn't part of your list's purpose
>just let me know and I'll bow out gracefully!
>
>I work at the State Library of Kansas in Topeka. Today a patron called in
>wanting the pronunciation of a word unfamiliar to any of us.
>
>Amicicide
>
>We can't find the word in any dictionaries we have and its "hit rate" on
>google is fairly low. The words appears to be used by military folk to
>describe the results of "friendly fire".... "the murder of a friend."
>
>I've checked as many online pronouncing dictionaries as I can locate...
>nothing. My thought is that it might have the same flow as infanticide
>(accent on second syllable)... but I have no proof.
>
>Any help appreciated!
>
>Bill Sowers
>State Library of Kansas... obsessively still working on this though at home
>
>
>Bill & Diana Sowers -- bsowers at cox.net -- 1746 Fairmont Rd, Topeka KS 66604
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