Amicicide

[Jonathan Lighter]

My reading of that bibliography is that the term was used as a title in 1982, but not, AFAICT, in 1755,

JL

Barnhart <barnhart at HIGHLANDS.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Barnhart
Subject: Re: Amicicide
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My preference is for uh MEE kuh side. The {si side} pronunciation is
reasonable, too.

What was more interesting to me was the age of the term:

Washington, George. Letter to Robert Dinwiddie, 18 Jul 1755.
Writings of Washington. Vol I. Ed by John C. Fitzpatrick.
Wash, DC: GPO, 1931. pp. 148-51. E312.7.
Relates his eyewitness account of how British soldiers
during
Braddock's defeat panicked and fired volleys into their
own
ranks.


David K. Barnhart, Editor/Publisher
The Barnhart DICTIONARY COMPANION
Lexik at highlands.com

American Dialect Society on Tuesday, September
27, 2005 at 8:30 PM -0500 wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Laurence Horn
>Subject: Re: Amicicide
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>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 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
>>Lincoln Co KSGenWeb: http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/lincoln/index.html
>>Barton Co KSGenWeb: http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/barton/index.html
>>KS School info for genealogists:
>>http://www.skyways.org/genweb/education/index.html
>>Our Family pages: http://www.members.cox.net/bsowers/index.html
>>Info on us: http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/lincoln/info.htm
>>DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT KANSAS?
>>Click here: http://www.kslib.info/ref/quest.html
>>
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