English

Noun

filicide ‎(countable and uncountable, plural filicides)

1. A person who kills his or her own child.
   • 1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin 2006, p. 287:

     Ned is running, panicked, [...] running for the cold hard road and the sanctuary of the Brunch farm like a filicide caught in the act.

2. The killing of one's own child.
   • 2014, Albert Lee Strickland, “Familicide”, in Michael John Brennan, editor, The A–Z of Death and Dying: Social, Medical, and Cultural Aspects, Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 978-1-4408-0344-4, pages 205–206:

     Terms related to familicide include filicide (the killing of one's child or children), uxoricide (the killing of one's wife), fratricide or sororicide (the killing of one's brother or sister), avunculicide (the killing of one's uncle), and nepoticide (the killing of one's nephew).

Translations

Usage notes

Infanticide is the usual English term, especially if the victim is at or near infancy. Filicide implies specifically the killing of one's own son or daughter, especially biological and if the victim lived past infancy.

See also

• altruistic filicide
• familicide
• fratricide
• homicide
• parricide
• sororicide
• suicide
• uxoricide
• infanticide, neonaticide, prolicide