genocidist

[Jonathan Lighter]

The OED has its last "homicide" in a parallel sense (i.e.,  'murderer') in
1821.

Just another unexplained mystery of English.

JL

On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 7:59 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: genocidist
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sep 17, 2014, at 7:30 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> > Not in OED.  Thousands of hits.
> >=20
> > Testifying before the House, John Kerry today described members of =
> ISIL as
> > "genocidists."
> >=20
> > GB has a 1949 that looks real, as it mentions "President Truman": "His
> > client,
> > I'd say, was the man who helped the painter from Germany become a
> > genocidist."
> >=20
> Curiously, "genocide" in this sense seems a bit odd, curiously:
>
> Electra was a matricide.
> Oedipus was a patricide (or, if you prefer, a parricide).
> Cain was a fratricide.
> Plath was a suicide.
> #Hitler was a genocide.
>
> and it's not in the OED with this sense. (Of course, as Jon points out, =
> neither is genocidist.)
>
> LH
>
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