Dictionary

principicide en · NOUN

Etymology

From Latin prī̆nceps, prī̆ncipis + -cide.

Meanings

1. (countable, rare, uncountable) The killing of a prince.
   • Both of these stories, that he was exiled or placed in terror of his life, belong to a recognized genre invented to justify the principicide and yet continue the imperial system. 1997, Julian Bennett, Trajan, Optimus Princeps: A Life and Times, Bloomington, Ind; Indianapolis, Ind.: Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 36:
   • It was a terrible, but all too excusable crime, principicide. 2005, M[eirion] J[ames] Trow, chapter 3, in Maxwell’s Mask (Peter ‘Mad Max’ Maxwell Series; 11), London: Allison & Busby, →ISBN, page 27:
   • The Roumanians hold the world record for principicide, or the assassination of princes, with Serbia—whose record in this regard is not to be despised, either—a bad second. 1919, Eugene Pivany, “Appendix B. Roumania’s Territorial Claims. [From a treatise entitled “Roumania in Hungary,” by Eugene Pivany.]”, in Treaty of Peace with Germany: Extracts from Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate; Sixty-Sixth Congress, First Session, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, page 989:
2. (countable, rare) One who kills a prince.
   • As it was not the ‘bullet,’ or the ‘pistol,’ or the ‘powder,’ that animated the would-be Principicide, so it is not the ‘consumptuous dinner’—not the fish, flesh, fowl, and good plum-pudding, that tends to increase the appetite for them. 1885, F[rederic] R[ichard] Lees, “The Sermon in Relation to Facts”, in Essays Critical and Controversial Showing the Harmony of Bible-Truth with True Scientific Temperance, volume 5, London: […] National Temperance Publication Depot […], page 256:
   • The law has been vindicated, and the outraged feelings of the people of these colonies have been avenged by the execution this morning of the wretched man—the would-be principicide [Henry O’Farrell]. 1868 April 21, “Victoria. [From our Melbourne Correspondent.]”, in The Express & Telegraph, late edition, volume V, number 1,324, Adelaide, S.A., published 24 April 1868, page [3], column 3:
   • The chances of immediate escape for a principicide must be taken as very small. 1881 July 18, St. James’s Gazette; quoted in “prĭn-çĭp’-ĭ-çíde”, in [Robert Hunter], editor, The Encyclopædic Dictionary: A New and Original Work of Reference to All the Words in the English Language, […], volume V, part II, London; Paris; New York, N.Y.; Melbourne, Vic.: Cassell & Company, Limited, 1886, page 660, column 2:

Forms

Relateds

prince · princeps

Translations (2)

de Prinzenmord (the killing of a prince) · de Fürstenmord (the killing of a prince)