A Necessary Neologism: The Origin and Uses of Suicide

Abstract

In English‐speaking societies today the word suicide is the preferred term for self‐inflicted death. But it has not always been so. Evidence recounted here suggests that suicide was devised by Sir Thomas Browne and first published in his book Religio Medici in 1643. Although little used at first, suicide had become established as noun and verb by the mid‐18th century and was recognized by inclusion in Johnson's Dictionary. The modern world has seen an enormous increase in words and expressions derived from suicide, some of which are discussed here.