Seppuku

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /sɛˈpuː.kuː/

Definitions

1. A form of ritualized suicide by self-disembowelment practiced by samurai in feudal Japan as a means of maintaining honor or accepting capital punishment
2. A Japanese ritual form of self-inflicted death by blade involving the abdomen, historically performed by samurai to preserve honor or accept punishment
3. The traditional Japanese practice of honorable suicide through self-disembowelment, used by the samurai class to maintain dignity or face execution

Etymology: Seppuku is a compound of two ordinary Japanese words: 切 (setsu, "to cut") and 腹 (fuku, "belly"), which combine into 切腹, literally "cutting the belly." The Japanese term was in turn built from Chinese characters whose readings came from much older Chinese pronunciations, so the word is a Japanese compound written with Chinese characters and then carried into English in its Japanese form. The practice it names was closely tied to the samurai class of feudal Japan. A samurai could perform it to preserve his honor after a disgrace or defeat, or to die by his own hand rather than face execution, and it was often carried out in a formal setting with a second present to end the suffering with a sword stroke. The English word keeps the blunt physical meaning of its parts: it describes the act itself rather than any abstract idea of honor, which lies in the cultural context rather than the word.