A few days ago
Anonymous

Why isn’t “DECIDE” the death of all “Ds”?

-CIDE: A suffix that means “a killer of.”

There are many “-cides” out there: pesticide, homicide, patricide, suicide, fratricide, ecocide, genocide, etc. However, there has always been on “-cide” that has made me pause.

DECIDE: to make a judgment or determine a preference; come to a conclusion.

Admittedly it is the “killing/ending” of a state of mind, but I’ve always wondered why the definition isn’t “the death of all Ds.” Has anyone else taken notice of this, or have any thoughts?

Top 6 Answers
A few days ago
Anonymous

Favorite Answer

You think a lot but that’s pretty cool.

What’s the death of all As?

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A few days ago
☼ procrastin8 Ψ
I have never thought about it before. It is an interesting question.

-Cide means cut or kill.Therefore, it depends on what you put in front of the “-cide” that determines the meaning of the word.

Usually “de-” in front of another word turns it into the opposite (deactivate, derail, detox). So the cutting off of “d’s” doesn’t work because “de” does not have a meaning all by itself.

I think you have answered your own question by stating that decide is the cutting off of one’s thoughts. You have made up your mind and have decided, therefore there is no more thought about it. The thought is dead.

Interesting and thought provoking question! I give you a star!!!

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A few days ago
Vicki
This is a really interesting question! I had never thought about it, but your musings made me do some research and apparantly there are two meanings of the suffix ‘cide’ one meaning kill and one meaning to cut! Somehow the latter is the one we use for the word decide!

What a complex language we have!

Perhaps the website is worth a look for anyone as interested in this stuff as me!

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A few days ago
LaWeezel
Checking the word derivation in the dictionary, ‘decide’ comes from deciden from decidere… to cut off, decide… which comes from de- (off) + caedere (to cut). Looking up the -cide ending, yes, it means to cut down or kill. In this case, though, the ‘cut’ portion of the meaning was taken. So a decision cuts off further thought on the matter, it would seem. Unless you waffle. 🙂
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A few days ago
wow_bill
Hmmm…

…Then that must mean “COINCIDE” would be death to all coins?

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A few days ago
♥Lucifer♥
Nope.

But it was interesting nonetheless. Thanks!

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