Is GENERICIDE a bad choice or morphemes?

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Fri, 4 Mar 2005 20:54:36 -0500, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
wrote:

>At 5:54 PM -0600 3/4/05, Mullins, Bill wrote:
>>  Also seen:
>>
>>Bushicide -- referring to George Bush being a killer, and
>>Shoeicide -- referring to the shoe bomber, and a shoe as a weapon
>
>Nice examples--but note that not one of these (including hype-icide
>and other examples cited earlier) is the X of Xicide a goal argument.

And "shoeicide (bomber)" (or, in its appearance as the ADS Most Creative
Word of 2001, "shuicide") falls into the category of "suicide" blends
(autocide, copicide, medicide), where the instrument is a means for
killing oneself.  Of course, the instrument in this case is intended to
kill others as well, but that gets into the tendentious grounds of
"suicide" vs. "homicide" bombers...


--Ben Zimmer