nepoticide

English

WOTD – 18 February 2018

Alternative forms

• nepocide (rare)

Etymology

From Latin nepōs, nepōtis (“nephew”) + -cide.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /nəˈpɒtɪsaɪd/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /nəˈpɑtəsaɪd/, /-ɾə-/
• Hyphenation: ne‧po‧ti‧cide

Noun

nepoticide (countable and uncountable, plural nepoticides)

1. (countable, uncountable) The killing of one's own nephew.
   • 1856, Mrs. William Busk, Mediæval Popes, Emperors, Kings, and Crusaders: Or, Germany, Italy and Palestine, from A.D. 1125 to A.D. 1268, volume IV, London: Hookham and Sons, →OCLC, page 294:

     The new accusation brought by Urban against Manfred of murdering his sister-in-law's embassador – it may be observed that, tacitly, he acquits him of parricide, fratricide, and nepoticide – requires a little explanation.

   • 1975, Jerome Hamilton Buckley, The Worlds of Victorian Fiction (Harvard English Studies; 6), Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 30:

     [Charles] Dickens did not get to work out the interplay between these varying guardians and their various wards; and if the murder was to be a nepoticide, it remains forever shrouded by non-completion.

   • 1995, Lowell Edmunds, Alan Dundes, editors, Oedipus: A Folklore Casebook, Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, →ISBN, page 64:

     The idea of parricide should be defined elastically enough not only to include avunculicide but to make it optional whether the youth or his father takes the initiative in expressing the antagonism between them. In the story from New Guinea, there is sexual jealousy between a father and son, and the father eventually kills the son instead of the other way around. In the Trukese story, we have an attempt at nepoticide, for the uncle tries to kill his nephew.

   • 2001, Adrian Trehorse, The Last Angry White Man, Lincoln, Neb.: Writers Club Press, →ISBN, page 154:

     The Injuns get to Naturmitgefuhl by the metaphor of a family: if you don't throw the roe-plump squeteague back, that is a sort of nepoticide.

   • 2014, Albert Lee Strickland, “Familicide”, in Michael John Brennan, editor, The A–Z of Death and Dying: Social, Medical, and Cultural Aspects, Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, pages 205–206:

     Terms related to familicide include filicide (the killing of one's child or children), uxoricide (the killing of one's wife), fratricide or sororicide (the killing of one's brother or sister), avunculicide (the killing of one's uncle), and nepoticide (the killing of one's nephew).

   • 2014 June 1, David Benioff, D[aniel] B[rett] Weiss, “The Mountain and the Viper”, in Game of Thrones, season 4, episode 8:

     He was my nephew as well, so what is that? Fratricide is brothers. Filicide is sons. Nepoticide. That's the one.

2. (countable) One who kills his or her own nephew.
   • 2014 September 15, Martin Gayford, “There’s more to Ming than a vase [print version: 16 August 2014, pages R6–R7]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review)‎^[1], archived from the original on 26 October 2015:

     The fact that the Yongle emperor was therefore a usurper, regicide and nepoticide (nephew-killer) made compiling the Veritable Record – or official history – of his reign a most dangerous scholarly post. The official given this ticklish task managed to survive several drafts, finally producing one that pleased his master as it omitted the dead nephew's reign altogether.

Derived terms

• nepoticidal

Related terms

• nepotism
• nepotist
• nepotistic

Translations

killing of one's own nephew

• Finnish: veljenpojan surma
• French: népoticide (fr) m
• Galician: nepoticidio m
• Ido: nevocido
• Polish: morderstwo siostrzeńca n (literally “killing of a nephew on one's mother's side”), morderstwo bratanka n (literally “killing of a nephew on one's father's side”)

one who kills his or her own nephew

• Finnish: veljenpoikansa surmaaja
• Galician: nepoticida m or f

See also

• avunculicide (“killing of uncle”)