assassination

[Victor Steinbok]

I just went through all the OneLook definitions plus OED.

OED:
> The action of assassinating; the taking the life of any one by
> treacherous violence, esp. by a hired emissary, or one who has taken
> upon him to execute the deed.

This covers most, but not all elements in other dictionaries. In fact,
the OED is the only one that adds "esp. by a hired emissary, etc.".

Cambridge DAE adds "money" in a different way, but with similar purpose:
> to murder (a famous or important person) for political reasons or in
> exchange for money

Most defs. have "act of assassinating", "murder of famous or important
person" or "public figure". Some add "esp. for political reasons", "by
means of treachery", "secretly" and/or "by sudden attack".

What I find most interesting is that /not one/ explicitly defines it as
a deliberate and targeted act. Perhaps it's implied by "murder", but
murder could be a random act, neither premeditated nor targeted. Perhaps
the "targeted" part is hidden in "public figure", etc., but would a
random murder of a famous, important or "public" figure during a robbery
be an assassination?

The cognates suffer from the same difficulty. For example, assassin is
defined as

> someone who kills a famous or important person, especially for
> political reasons, or someone who is paid to kill a particular person

     VS-)


On 3/23/2011 11:22 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> Many years ago I read or heard that "assassination" was a prejudicial,
> elitist ideological term because it implied that prominent people deserve a
> special word when they're murdered.
>
> Every time you use it you're promoting hierarchy and oppression.
>
> Until now.
> JL
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 10:13 AM, Charles C Doyle<cdoyle at uga.edu>  wrote:
>> Yesterday an escaping carjacker shot and killed an Athens GA policeman.
>>   Both the police chief and several TV commentators has been referring to the
>> murder as an "assassination."
>>
>> That use of the term sounds odd to me.  Some dictionaries, in entries for
>> the noun and its corresponding verb, specify the killing of a "prominent
>> person" or "public figure"; others say "especially" for that limitation.
>>
>> The OED does not (nor does it give any examples of the noun or verb from
>> later than the mid-19th century, except in figurative senses, as in
>> "character assassination").  Should it?  I assume the specialization of the
>> terms (if such exists) is a somewhat receent development (19th or 20th
>> century).
>>
>> --Charlie

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