Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The killing of one's father, mother, or other near relative.
  • noun The killing of the ruler of one's country.
  • noun One who commits parricide.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who murders his father or mother.
  • noun One who murders any ancestor or any one to whom he owes reverence; also, in old use, one who kills his child.
  • noun The murder of a parent or of one to whom reverence is due.
  • noun Figuratively, the crime of treason against one's country.
  • noun Figuratively, one who commits treason against his country.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Properly, one who murders one's own father; in a wider sense, one who murders one's father or mother or any ancestor.
  • noun The act or crime of murdering one's own father or any ancestor.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Someone who kills a relative, especially a parent.
  • noun The killing of a relative, especially a parent.
  • noun The killing of a ruler, or other authority figure; treason.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun someone who kills his or her parent
  • noun the murder of your own father or mother

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin parricīdium and parricīda : pāri-, parri-, kin + -cīdium. -cīda, -cide.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French parricide, from Latin parricida, of uncertain origin.

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Examples

  • This recovery of filiation in parricide has its parallel in the more general return of history and ethics that de Man recognizes in these essays (and claims is their "most interesting occurrence of all") (498).

    'At the Far End of this Ongoing Enterprise...' 2005

  • The word parricide is contrary to its original import, applied to the murderer of any near relative.

    Commentary on Genesis - Volume 1 1509-1564 1996

  • About 49 children each year kill their parents, but few are so young, said Kathleen Heide, a criminology professor at the University of South Florida who has studied the crime, called parricide, for more than 30 years.

    Ohio boy, 10, charged with mom's murder 2011

  • About 49 children each year kill their parents, but few are so young, said Kathleen Heide, a criminology professor at the University of South Florida who has studied the crime, called parricide, for more than 30 years.

    Ohio boy, 10, charged with mom's murder 2011

  • The violence hidden and demonstrated by elegance is what de Man calls a parricide, and this death (a broken leg, broken legacy) seems de Man's own.

    'At the Far End of this Ongoing Enterprise...' 2005

  • You know, Bethany, the reality is that parricide, which is slang for parenticide, is very rare, much less when a girl, a girl, a teenager commits parricide.

    CNN Transcript Jun 30, 2005 2005

  • University of South Florida who has studied the crime, called parricide, for more than 30

    USATODAY.com News 2011

  • University of South Florida who has studied the crime, called parricide, for more than 30

    USATODAY.com News 2011

  • Must I be called a parricide, a traitor, a villain, lose the esteem of all those whom I love, to preserve my own; be shunned like a rattlesnake, or be pointed at like a bear?

    Letters from an American Farmer J. Hector St. John de Cr��vecoeur 1774

  • The contemplating a father's death and profiting by the contemplation, -- it seems a kind of parricide -- it is not natural, Randal.

    The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 5, No. 1, January, 1852 Various

Comments

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  • "The sale of absolutions was the source of large fortunes to the priests ... God's pardon for crimes already committed, or about to be committed, was advertised according to a graduated tariff. Thus, poisoning, for example, was absolved for eleven ducats, six livres tournois. Absolution for incest was afforded at thirty-six livres, three ducats. Perjury came to seven livres and three carlines. Pardon for murder, if not by poison, was cheaper. Even a parricide could buy forgiveness at God's tribunal at one ducat, four livres, eight carlines."

    - 'The Rise of the Dutch Republic', John Lothrop Motley, 1855.

    February 19, 2008