murder

What it means

1. countableAn act of killing a person unlawfully, especially with predetermination.

   There have been ten unsolved murders this year alone.

   5 more examples

   Throwing that punch was a murder whether you meant for it to happen or not.

   The case was that of a murder. It had an element of mystery about it, however, which was puzzling the authorities. A turban and loincloth soaked in blood had been found; also a staff.

   1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 4, in Pulling the Strings

   One of the most urgent tasks facing me after I assumed office was to assure the country that everything possible was being done to uncover the truth surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy. John Kennedy had been murdered, and a troubled, puzzled, and outraged nation wanted to know the facts.

   1971, Lyndon Johnson, “"I feel like I have already been here a year"”, in The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 25

   Life is cheap, never forget it. Corporations make marketing decisions by weighing the cost of being sued for your death against the cost of making the product safer. Your life is a factor in cost-effectiveness. So when you talk about murder, don't confine your discussion to individuals.

   1997, George Carlin, Brain Droppings, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 177

   A murder? Well, thank goodness for that!

   1999 January 20, Anthony Horowitz et al., “Death's Shadow”, in Midsomer Murders

   1. uncountablelawThe crime of killing a person unlawfully, especially with predetermination.

      The defendant was charged with murder.

      1 more example

      Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine.[…]One thing that is true, though, is that murder rates have fallen over the centuries, as policing has spread and the routine carrying of weapons has diminished. Modern society may not have done anything about war. But peace is a lot more peaceful.

      2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845

   2. abbreviationuncountablelawShort for felony murder, the act of committing or abetting a crime that results in the killing of a person, regardless of intent, even if the perpetrator did not directly kill the victim.

      Both the arsonist and her partner were charged with murder, even though they had intended for it to be a victimless crime.

In a sentence

Throwing that punch was a murder whether you meant for it to happen or not.

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*mer-
2. Proto-Germanic*mŕ̥trom
3. Proto-Germanic*murþrą
4. Proto-West Germanic*morþr
5. Old Englishmorþor
6. Middle Englishmurthre
7. Middle Englishmurder
8. Englishmurder

From Middle English murder, murdre, mourdre, alteration of earlier murthre (“murder”) (see murther), from Old English morþor (“secret slaying, unlawful killing”) and Old English myrþra (“murder, homicide”), both from Proto-West Germanic *morþr, from Proto-Germanic *murþrą (“death, killing, murder”), from Proto-Indo-European *mr̥tro- (“killing”), from Proto-Indo-European *mer-, *mor-, *mr̥- (“to die”). Akin to Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌸𐍂 (maurþr, “murder”), Old High German mord (“murder”), Old Norse morð (“murder”), Old English myrþrian (“to murder”) and morþ. The -d- in the Middle English form may have been influenced in part by Anglo-Norman murdre, from Old French murdre, from Medieval Latin murdrum (whence the English doublet of murdrum), from Frankish *morþr, *murþr (“murder”), from the same Germanic root, though this may also have been wholly the result of internal development (compare burden, from burthen and spider, from spiþra). (crows): Attested at least since 1475.