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> he simply introduced new words into the still-inchoate English language when none seemed to do the trick; Browne is responsible for “hallucination” and “suic
by stephen-mw 11y ago
> he simply introduced new words into the still-inchoate English language when none seemed to do the trick; Browne is responsible for “hallucination” and “suicide,” along with about a hundred other neologisms.
I'm having a hard time believing there wasn't a translation of the word "suicide" until 1600s. Wasn't suicide all over classical mythology? Wasn't it well known that Cato committed suicide rather than submit to Caesar? How did they describe such things?
- nulldata 11y agoThey'd just say: "He would rather kill himself than..."
- copperx 11y agoAnd here, "kill himself" sounds better than "commit suicide".
- kenko 11y agoEarlier one might have referred to "self-murder": http://blog.oup.com/2013/08/self-murder-killing-suicide-etymology/ http://blog.oup.com/2013/08/self-murder-killing-suicide-etym...
- mhd 11y agoIsn't suicide actually a neologism, i.e. it might be a Latin construct, but never actually used by Latin speakers. In German, "Suizid" is actually the preferred form, as the old "Selbstmord" (self-murder) is a bit moralizing, and "Freitod" ("freely chosen death") is way too romantic sounding.