autocide

From auto- (“self”) +‎ -cide (“killing”).^[1]

autocide (countable and uncountable, plural autocides)

1. (uncountable, agriculture) Control of a pest through propagation of sterile males.
   • 1975, Dennis S. Hill, Agricultural Insect Pests of the Tropics and Their Control, 2nd edition, →ISBN, page 22:

     Generally, autocide is most effective when applied to restricted populations (islands, etc.), but can be effective on parts of continents.

2. (countable and uncountable, bacteriology) A substance produced by a bacterium that is fatal to that bacterium.
   • 2001, “Myxococcales”, in David R. Boone et al., editors, Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, →ISBN, page 1065:

     Five different autocides have been isolated from Myxococcus xanthus.

From auto- (“automobile”) +‎ -cide (“killing”).^[2]

autocide (countable and uncountable, plural autocides)

1. An act of suicide committed by crashing an automobile.
   • 1993 December 13, “Northbridge Educators Alerted to Depression Among Students”, in Worcester Telegram Gazette‎^[1]:

     "Autocide is becoming the second most popular method for older teens to commit suicide," she said.

2. An act of killing someone with an automobile.

From auto- (“self”) +‎ -cide (“killer”).^[3]

autocide (plural autocides)

1. (rare) One who commits suicide.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:suicidee

   • 1635, David Person, “[A Treatise of Death, and of Diverse Orders and Ceremonies of Burials.] Section 1. The Remembrance of Death Requisite in All Men: […]”, in Varieties: or, A Surveigh of Rare and Excellent Matters, Necessary and Delectable for All Sorts of Persons. […], London: […] Richard Badger, for Thomas Alchorn [and Thomas Cotes], […], →OCLC, page 155:

     For as Saint Auguſtine reaſons well againſt ſuch Autocides and ſelfe murtherers, it is rather a token of puſillanimity and lacke of courage in them, than otherwayes a marke of true reſolution to doe ſo; […]

   • 1990 June, Richard Martin, “Aren't You Rather Young to be Writing Your Memoirs? or, B[ryan] S[tanley] Johnson on Raymond Federman”, in Alfred Hornung, Ernstpeter Ruhe, editors, Autobiographie & Avant-garde (overall work in English and French), Tübingen, B.W.: Gunter Narr Verlag, published 1992, →ISBN, page 357:

     The irony of Johnson's title is that only two years later this most professional of artists - poet, novelist, short-story writer, filmmaker, dramatist, and sports journalist - killed himself at the age of forty-two. The autobiographer as autocide.

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