regicide
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈrɛdʒɪˌsaɪd/
- Formal
- Semiramis commits regicide, orchestrates an elaborate cover-up, and expresses an incestuous desire for her son.
- two regicides
Examples
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Brombert writes: "Regicide is nothing but an extreme form of parricide" (227).
Academic text (1994) -
What did Gorgorians do to regicides?
Fiction book (1993) -
The fact that almost all the regicides were millennialists bears eloquent testimony to this contradiction.
Academic text (1991) -
Connecticut harbored the regicides Whalley and Coffey and became skillful in developing systems to avoid royal abuse.
Blog text (29) -
It might be understood as representing a message from David to any would-be assassins or regicides that any part in the death of a king would merit the same severe penalty.
Academic text (1997) -
In 1649, Oliver Cromwell was implicated in the regicide of King Charles I.
-
The council debated the consequences of regicide after the assassination of the king.
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Only a few regicides were remembered in history for their role in overthrowing the monarchy.
Surface Forms
Morphology
regicide = regi + cide
The word is built from classical combining elements meaning 'king' and 'killing', but these parts are not transparent to an average B1 learner.
Etymology
Regicide can also mean a person who kills a king, and the word joins Latin rex ('king') with -cide ('to kill'), like in suicide, so a regicide is literally a 'king-killer'.