nepocide

N1E1P3O1C3I1D2E1

A form of nepoticide — The killing of one's own nephew.

Scrabble 13

Meanings

nounnepocide (countable and uncountable, plural nepocides)

plural nepocides

  1. alternativecountablerareuncountableAlternative form of nepoticide (“killing of one's own nephew”).
    3 more examples

    Morvryn […was] reclaimed by the gentle care of his twin-sister, Gwendydd, the mother of the ill-fated youth whom he had deprived of life. […] Jeoffrey of Monmouth composed a Latin poem, dedicated to Robert, Bishop of Lincoln, in which he describes with considerable spirit, though in rugged verse, the insanity of the involuntary nepocide: […]

    1876, “The Last of the British Bards”, in Calcutta Review, volume 63, number 126, page 357

    I could not but be comforted by his support, not alone for the sake of my grandfather, whom I'd long since forgiven his attempted nepocide and wished only well, but also because, as Bray's subsequent speech indicated, he had apparently more confidence in me than I'd had for the last quarter-hour in myself.

    1966, John Barth, Giles Goat-Boy or, The Revised New Syllabus, Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, page 632

    In between royal hopefuls and the crown lay many hazards, including not only infant mortality but martial defeat and/or exile, as well as (sometimes suspicious and always deadly) accident, (probable) fratricide and nepocide, and even regicide: three of the four deposed and murdered English kings (Edward II, Richard II and Henry VI) belong to this period.

    1998 Winter, Maureen Fries, “The Arthurian Moment: History and Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britannie”, in Arthuriana, volume 8, number 4, →JSTOR, page 90

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

nepocide. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nepocide

MLA

“nepocide.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nepocide. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “nepocide,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nepocide.

Source: nepocide on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.