xenocide

English

WOTD – 1 November 2015

Etymology

xeno- +‎ -cide

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈzɛnəsaɪd/, /ˈziːnəsaɪd/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

xenocide (countable and uncountable, plural xenocides)

1. The killing of a stranger or foreigner.
   • 2009, Andrei Oisteanu, Inventing the Jew: Antisemitic Stereotypes:

     As notorious examples of ritual xenocide, suffice it to mention the foreigners sacrificed on the altar of the goddess Artemis in Colchis, on the eastern shore of the Black Sea (Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, 4.45) as well as the ritual of beheading strangers when the reaping season drew to a close, performed by the legendary Lityerses, king of Phyrgia. [...] [In] an act of ritual xenocide in a Cossack villafe [...] Cossacks kill a Turkish woman[.]

2. (science fiction) The genocide of an entire alien species.
   • 1996, Orson Scott Card, Children of the Mind:

     The age that began with one xenocide attempted had now ended with other xenocides prevented or, at least, postponed.

3. (US, colloquial) The intentional killing of an entire foreign (plant or animal) species.

Derived terms

• xenocidal

Translations

genocide of entire alien species

• Finnish: lajinmurha
• French: xénocide
• German: Xenozid m or n
• Greek: ξενοκτονία f (xenoktonía)
• Italian: xenocidio m
• Polish: ksenocyd
• Russian: ксеноци́д m (ksenocíd)
• Spanish: xenocidio m

Further reading

• xenocide on Wikipedia.Wikipedia