Is this a reference to some historical quote? The earliest usage I found is The King Must Die from 1958.
Well, there’s Carthago delendum est – “Carthage must be destroyed” – used by Cato in the Roman Senate.
H. T. Gibson, “They Must Die!” But They Didn’t - 1934
Nicholas Blake, The Beast Must Die - 1938
Kay Boyle, A Frenchman Must Die - 1946
Colin Robertson, Two Must Die - 1948
Richard Himmel, Two Deaths Must Die - 1954
Wow, thanks. Can we still point to a work that prompted the recent (since ~2000) surge in the use of that phrase?
Nothing stood out for me when searching book titles.
Putting “must die” in IMDb yields hundreds of hits.
Romeo Must Die was a fairly major movie and it came out in 2000. But there are so many earlier uses that it’s hard to pin down a turning point.
I attribute it’s resurgence to this movie masterpiece : Surf Nazis Must Die. It was certainly the first thing I thought of.
I can’t say I have noticed any particular “resurgence”. Have you any evidence that there has been one? Maybe it is just that you have started noticing it for some reason.
Yes, I’ll accept the Surf Nazis (1987) as the archetype of modern usage. Thanks again, everyone.
Whenever I hear “X must die”, I always think of Edith Keeler.