Fratricide (familial)

Fratricide is the killing of a person by either his brother or sister. The word comes from the Latin frater, for brother, and cide. for killing. Similar terms in English are "patricide", the killing of one's father, and "matricide", the killing of one's mother. Until fairly recently, fratricide had this sole meaning. In the last xxx years, however, a secondary meaning has come into common usage, perhaps to the point where it has supplanted the original sense of the word. This is the American military usage of fratricide to denote the mistaken killing in the heat of battle of one's own fellow soldiers, more commonly known to the public as death by "friendly fire". The most well-known fratricide in the classical sense is almost certainly the Biblical tale of the slaying of Abel by his brother Cain.