Prolicide

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The deliberate act of exterminating one's own offspring or young individuals within a biological context
2. A term used to describe the intentional killing of young organisms or descendants by their progenitors
3. The intentional act of causing death to one's own descendants or young

Etymology: "Prolicide" is a compound built from Latin "prōlēs," meaning "offspring," and the English suffix "-cide," from Latin "-cida," meaning "killer" or "killing," as in "homicide" or "suicide." Joined together, the parts describe the killing of one's offspring. The word is a technical coinage rather than an ancient term. The Oxford English Dictionary records it in its modern entries, which is why it reads as a deliberate piece of scientific vocabulary: it was built on classical parts to name a specific behaviour in biological contexts, where the killing of young by a parent is studied in animals and not limited to any one species.