Etymology

eliticide

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Today it means: The targeted killing of the leadership of a group (to cripple it), for example at the beginning of a genocide or during a revolution. Full definition →

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The story

From elite + -icide. First used in 1992 by British reporter Michael Nicholson to describe the Bijeljina massacre in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.