feticide

See also: féticide

English

Alternative forms

• fetucide
• foeticide

Etymology

From fetus +‎ -cide or fetus +‎ -icide, from Middle French -cide, from Latin -cīda (“cutter, killer”) and its derivation -cīdium (“killing”), from -cīd (combining form of caedō (“cut, kill”)) + -a (“-er”, forming agent nouns).

Pronunciation

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Noun

feticide (countable and uncountable, plural feticides)

1. (dysphemistic) The killing of a fetus or embryo; an induced abortion. [from 19th century]
   • 2002, Daniel Schiff, Abortion in Judaism, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 68:

     Zimra, then, takes an unequivocal stance; favoring Rashi's view over that of Maimonides, he offers little comfort for the rodef approach, holding instead that feticide cannot be regarded as murder becaue the fetus is not a nefesh.

   • 1878, H. Gibbons, "On Feticide" in Transactions of the Session of the Medical Society of the State of California vol. 8; J. Anthony & Co., Printers; page 209:

     Notwithstanding the earnest opposition of writers and lecturers and preachers and legislators, the practice of feticide appears to be on the increase.

2. One who kills a fetus.

Derived terms

• feticidal

Translations

killing of a fetus

French: fœticide (fr) m German: Fetozid (de) m Icelandic: fósturdráp n Japanese: 堕胎 (ja) (だたい, datai) Macedonian: плодоубиство n (plodoubistvo) Norwegian: Bokmål: fosterdrap n Spanish: feticidio m