felo de se

plural felos de se

1. countableuncountableA crime committed against oneself, in particular suicide.

   [T]ho' I made ſome occaſional attempts at felo de ſe; but as I did not find thoſe raſh actions anſvver, I left off killing myſelf very ſoon.

   1781, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Critic: Or A Tragedy Rehearsed […], London: […] T[homas] Becket, […], →OCLC, Act I, scene ii, page 38

   2 more examples

   [H]ow came the King by a povver vvhich the People are afraid to truſt and alvvays obliged to check? Such a povver could not be the gift of a vviſe People, neither can any povver vvhich needs checking be from God: yet the proviſion vvhich the conſtitution makes, ſuppoſes ſuch a povver to exiſt. But the proviſion is unequal to the taſk, the means either cannot, or vvill not accompliſh the end, and the vvhole affair is a Felo de ſe: […]

   1775–1776 (date written), [Thomas Paine], “Of the Origin and Design of Government in General, with Concise Remarks on the English Constitution”, in Common Sense; […], Philadelphia, Pa.: […] R[obert] Bell, […], published 10 January 1776, →OCLC, page 10

   The Varlet was not an ill-favoured knave; / A good deal like a Vulture in the face / With a hook nose and a Hawk’s eye which gave / A smart & sharper-looking sort of grace / To his whole aspect, which though rather grave / Was by no means so ugly as his case, / But that indeed was hopeless as can be— / Quite a poetic felony “de se.”—

   [1822 October 15, Quevedo Redivivus [pseudonym; Lord Byron], “The Vision of Judgment”, in The Liberal. Verse and Prose from the South, 2nd edition, volume I, number I, London: […] John Hunt, […], published 1823, →OCLC, stanza XCIV