Other forms: suicides
Suicide is the act of deliberately killing yourself. Died by suicide, suicide prevention, suicide rates.
The language has changed deliberately: died by suicide has replaced committed suicide, because commit belongs to crimes and it was one in English law until 1961. Most people who survive an attempt do not go on to die that way, which is why prevention works. Help is available, and talking about it does not plant the idea.
1nounsuicideThe act of deliberately killing yourself.
“The hospital runs a helpline for people who are thinking about suicide.”
suicide is a cause of death.
New Latin suicidium is sui, of oneself, plus a root meaning killing. The word appears in English in 1643, in Thomas Browne.
First attested in Thomas Browne's Religio Medici (1643) in killing of oneself, ostensibly from New Latin suīcīdium, from suī + -cīdium, but often believed to have originated in English before entering Latin. Displaced native seolf-cwale from selfcwalu, after which suicide may have been modelled, or calqued (compare manuscript). killer of oneself is perhaps by analogy with words like homicide, patricide (see -cide#Etymology_2), or, although unlikely, from Medieval Latin suīcīda; see the Etymology section at suīcīdium.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA