spadassinicide

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US/ˌspɑd.əˈsɪ.nɪ.seɪd/

noun

The act of coaxing someone, usually through insult, into initiating a swordsman's duel, and subsequently killing that person with superior skill so as to commit legal murder.

OriginItalian spadaccino →
Scrabble 20
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Meanings

nounspadassinicide (plural spadassinicides)

plural spadassinicides

  1. rareThe act of coaxing someone, usually through insult, into initiating a swordsman's duel, and subsequently killing that person with superior skill so as to commit legal murder.
  2. rareOne who performs such an act.

    Challenges are flying right and left between these bully-swordsmen, these spadassinicides, and poor devils of the robe who have never learnt to fence with anything but a quill.

    1921, Rafael Sabatini, “Chapter VI”, in Scaramouche, book III

Origin

  1. Italianspadaccino“swordsman”
  2. Englishspadassinicide

From spadassin + -icide, from Italian spadaccino (“swordsman”).

More words from Italian

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

spadassinicide. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/spadassinicide

MLA

“spadassinicide.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/spadassinicide. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “spadassinicide,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/spadassinicide.

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