I thought ‘suicider’ was a Bushism (or something you squeeze out of a pig – or while calling a pig, or something). But I recently saw the word used in a thread. I’ve always thought that ‘suicide’ was the act of taking one’s own life, and ‘a suicide’ was the person who commits suicide. FWIW, my automatic spell-check does not recognise ‘suicider’.
Is ‘suicider’ an accepted word? Or is it a Bushism? Or a regionalism?
I haven’t heard the term. FWIW I hear “suicide” to be the taking of one’s own life, and “a suicide” usually to be an instance of the act. I have also heard “a suicide” to mean the person who commits suicide, but this usage is less common and doesn’t sound quite correct to me.
These are just my observations.
Doesn’t the -er construction imply that the act is habitual? In the case of suicide this would be a contradiction as a person can suicide only once.
“Suicide victim” sounds the most natural to me.
Someone who’s only comitted murder that one time is still generally referred to as a “murderer”, so I don’t think that suffix necessarily implies anything ongoing or repeated.
Anyway, I think “suicider” sounds odd since “-er” is typically applied to verbs, and while “to suicide” does exist in the English language, “to commit suicide” is more common.
Most people who commit suicide make several attempts before they finally get it right.
Perhaps it was a peculiarly Bush-like instance, and he was making a comparison between suicide bombers (so many syllables, need to shorten it.) and an apple beverage that’s been fermented in a culvert.
Sewer-cider? OK, maybe not.
“Tear him for his bad verses! Tear him for his bad verses!” - J.C.-Wm S.
It’s rather like the way that someone who kills a king is a regicide, but it’s fallen out of use because people think it sounds nasty.
Hard to call them a victim of something they intentionally did to themselves.
I’ve never heard of a suicider before either but I like it.
‘Suicider’ sounds like a word that might be applied to a number of badly maintained vehicles, especially motorcycles such as the Yammy FS1, I have had the ‘pleasure’ to drive over the years.
Sounds like a drink. Actually, sounds like something Nanny Ogg would make in that corroded still up in the Ramtops…
I’m still working on it but I think I’ll just let old age take care of it.
The act yes, the reasons leading up to… not so. Depression isn’t something people do to themselves. Maybe they did something to cause their depression, but if depression hits you for no other reason… well people don’t intentionally do that to themselves. The act is get rid of that problem when nothing else has worked or will ever work.
Suicide (as in, “he was a suicide”) is the most traditional and accepted form of the word meaning “one who commits suicide”. Suicider sounds a bit, well, funny, actually—it could come across as you making fun of the suicide.
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
Suicider works for me if say an individual is training to suicide in a terrorist attack.
The term ‘suicider’ seems to me, to be describing one in the midst of the act of suiciding.
For example: "Look at that suicider, he’s only (i.e.) 23… 22… 21… 20… (etc. stories from the …) oh, shit, that suicide is now complete.