Murdermonger

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who actively encourages or endorses acts of killing and violence via provocative rhetoric or behavior
2. An individual who supports or pushes for murder and aggressive actions by utilizing sensationalist discourse or tactics
3. A person who promotes and incites acts of lethal violence through inflammatory speech or conduct

Etymology: "Murdermonger" is built from two English parts. "Murder" comes from Old English "morþor," and "monger" comes from Old English "mangere," a word for a dealer or seller, later used in compounds for someone who trades in a particular thing, as in "fishmonger" or "warmonger." The pairing follows that pattern. A warmonger is one who stirs up war, and a murdermonger is, by the same logic, someone who peddles killing as a cause or a method. Here "monger" carries its older sense of a dealer working a trade, so the word casts the person as a merchant of violence rather than a simple perpetrator. Because it is a transparent compound assembled from two common English elements, its meaning is easy to read from its parts, and it has the same built-in sneer as its more familiar relatives.

Synonyms: killer, assassin, slayer, homicide, executioner