Parasuicides

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An act of intentionally causing harm or injury to oneself without the intent to die
2. A behavior that mimics suicide attempts but is aimed at eliciting a reaction or serving other non-lethal purposes
3. A form of self-inflicted injury that indicates distress but does not result in fatal outcomes

Etymology: Psychiatrists needed a clinical label for self-harm that stops short of death, so they built one from Greek and Latin parts. The "para-" comes from the Greek "para," meaning "beside" or "alongside." In compounds it can mean "resembling" or "not quite," as in "paramedic" or "paranormal." Attached to "suicide," it describes behaviour that looks like a suicide attempt but does not end in death. The second half is a New Latin formation, "suicidium," from "sui," "of oneself," and "caedere," "to kill," so the literal sense is self-killing. The compound is a deliberate technical coinage rather than an old word. The psychiatrist Erwin Stengel is generally credited with popularising it in medical writing about people who harm themselves without intending to die.