-cide
Also ‑cidal.
A person or substance that kills; an act of killing.
Latin ‑cidium and ‑cidere, from caedere, to strike down or slay.
One set of words refers to the killing of one human being by another, or self-killing in the case of suicide (sui, of oneself); terms here either describe the act of killing or the person who kills (so infanticide is either the killing of an infant or someone who kills an infant). Another group concerns the destruction of organisms considered undesirable, a general word for which is pesticide and common group terms insecticide, fungicide, and herbicide; terms here denote the agent that kills. Adjectives are formed in ‑cidal (fratricidal, homicidal).
Examples of words in -cide
All word origins are from Latin unless otherwise stated.
algicide
algae
alga, seaweed
bactericide
bacteria
Greek baktēria, staff or cane
deicide
gods
deus
biocide
living organisms
Greek bios, life
fratricide
a brother
frater
fungicide
fungi
English fungus
germicide
a disease germ
English germ
genocide
an ethnic or national group
Greek genos, race, stock, kind
herbicide
weeds and grasses
herba, herb
homicide
murder
homo, man, in practice gender-neutral
infanticide
a baby or infant
infant
insecticide
insects
English insect
matricide
one's mother
mater
microbicide
microbes
Greek mikros, small, plus bios, life
parricide
a parent
parricidium, murder of a parent
pesticide
a pest
pestis, plague
pseudocide
pretended suicide
Greek pseudēs, false
regicide
a king or other ruler
rex
rodenticide
rodents, especially rats or mice
rodere, to gnaw
spermicide
sperm
Greek sperma, seed
suicide
self-killing
sui‑, of oneself
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