‖ felo-de-se
(ˌfɛləʊ diː ˈsiː)
Pl. felones-, felos-de-se.
[Anglo-Lat. felō felon, dē sē of himself.]
1. One who ‘deliberately puts an end to his own existence, or commits any unlawful malicious act, the consequence of which is his own death’ (Blackstone).
| [c 1250 Bracton iii. ii. xxxi, Eodem modo quo quis feloniam facere possit interficiendo alium, ita feloniam facere possit interficiendo seipsum, quæ quidem felonia dicitur fieri de seipso.] 1651 G. W. tr. Cowel's Inst. 124 He that murders himself, is by us tearmed Felo de se. 1689 Hickeringill Modest Inq. iv. 30 How desperately they stabb themselves, and are Felones de se. 1814 Byron in Moore Life (1875) 421 That ‘felo de se’ who..Walk'd out of his depth and was lost in a calm sea. 1874 G. W. Dasent Half a Life i. 85 Dick..pronounced him..to be, in fact, felo de se. |
b. fig.| 1678 Lively Orac. iii. 40 Making their Natures a kind of felo de se to prompt the destroying itself. 1704 E. Ward Dissenting Hypocrite 34 That Church is Moderate and Easy T' excess, which would be Felo de se. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones viii. xiv, That Protestants..should be..such Felos de se, I cannot believe it. 1767 Blackstone Comm. II. 31 This modus is felo de se and destroys itself. 1840 De Quincey Style Wks. 1862 X. 164 A man who [etc.]..would be a madman and a felo-de-se, as respected his reliance upon that doctrine. |
| attrib. 1826 Edin. Rev. XLV. 171 This felo de se system. |
c. In etymological nonce-use (see
quot.).
| 1670 Clarendon Ess. Tracts (1727) 198 He is literally felo de se, who deprives and robs himself of that which no body but himself can rob him of. |
2. A case to which the verdict ‘felo de se’ is appropriate; self-murder, suicide.
| 1771 E. Long Trial of Dog ‘Porter’ in Hone Every-day Bk. II. 205 Your worships should incline to deem it a felo de se. 1840 Hood Up the Rhine 202 Werther, who brought felo-de-se into vogue. 1883 S. C. Hall Retrospect I. 45 The ‘crowner's quest’ had pronounced the wretched creature guilty of felo-de-se. |