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What is "fratricide"

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fratricide
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
fratricide
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ At least, he had saved his country from foolish fratricide by unselfishly renouncing the presidency.
▪ The Very Model of a Man is at is best when Cain justifies his fratricide with this lethal logic.
▪ Thus a gene for chromosomal fratricide will spread as surely as a murderer will inherit the Earth.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fratricide

Fratricide \Frat"ri*cide\, n. [L. fratricidium a brother's murder, fr. fratricida a brother's murderer; frater, fratris, brother + caedere to kill: cf. F. fratricide.]

  1. The act of one who murders or kills his own brother.

  2. [L. fratricida: cf. F. fratricide.] One who murders or kills his own brother.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
fratricide

mid-15c., "person who kills a brother;" 1560s, "act of killing a brother," from Latin fratricida "brother-slayer," from frater "brother" (see brother) + cida "killer;" in the later use from cidum "a killing," both from caedere "to kill, to cut down" (see -cide). Among several Old English words for this were broðorbana "one who kills a brother;" broðorcwealm "act of killing a brother."

Wiktionary
fratricide

n. 1 The killing of one's brother (or sister). 2 A person who commits this crime. 3 (context military by extension English) The intentional or unintentional killing of a comrade in arms.

WordNet
fratricide

  1. n. a person who murders their brother or sister

  2. the act of murdering your own brother or sister

  3. fire that injures or kills an ally [syn: friendly fire]

Wikipedia
Fratricide

Fratricide (from the Latin words frater "brother" and cida "killer," or cidum "a killing," both from caedere "to kill, to cut down") is the act of a person, directly or via use of either a hired or an indoctrinated intermediary (an assassin) that ultimately results in the killing of their brother.

Related concepts are sororicide (the killing of one's sister), child homicide (the killing of an unrelated child), infanticide (the killing of a child under the age of one year), filicide (the killing of one's child), patricide (the killing of one's father), matricide (the killing of one's mother), mariticide (the killing of one's husband) and uxoricide (the killing of one's wife). See also siblicide (the killing of an infant individual by its close relatives, full or half siblings).

Usage examples of "fratricide".

One of many ballads on fratricide, instigated by the mother: or inquired into by her, as the case may be.

The coveter of life in soul and shell, The fratricide, the thief, the infidel, The hoofed and horned.

If Algernon’s fratricides had been made known, Crispin would have been stripped of the title.

In those days, having journeyed a bit in the Italian peninsula, I no longer had firm opinions on the subject: I had heard of the monks of Altopascio, who, when they preached, threat­ened excommunications and promised indulgences, ab­solved those who committed robberies and fratricides, homicides and perjury, for money.

He emphasized his refusal to participate in fratricide by dropping Hengest headfirst to the ground.

No one even regarded him as a possibility: fratricide has been held as inconceivable, a lusus naturae, since the days of Cain.