a. One who ‘deliberately puts an end to his own existence, or commits any unlawful malicious act, the consequence of which is his own death’ (Blackstone).
[c1250
Bracton iii. ii. xxxi,
Eodem modo quo quis feloniam facere possit interficiendo alium, ita
feloniam facere possit interficiendo seipsum, quæ quidem felonia dicitur
fieri de seipso.]
1651
W. G. tr. J. Cowell Inst. Lawes Eng. 124
He that murders himself, is by us tearmed Felo de se.
1689
E. Hickeringill Speech Without-doors iv. 30
How desperately they stabb themselves, and are Felones de se.
1814
Byron in T. Moore Life Ld. Byron
(1851)
255/1 (Note)
That ‘felo de se’ who‥Walk'd out of his depth and was lost in a calm sea.
1874
G. W. Dasent Half a Life i. 85
Dick‥pronounced him‥to be, in fact, felo de se.
b. fig.
1678
Lively Orac. iii. 40
Making their Natures a kind of felo de se to prompt the destroying itself.
1704
E. Ward Dissenting Hypocrite 34
That Church is Moderate and Easy T' excess, which would be Felo de se.
1749
H. Fielding Tom Jones III. viii. xiv. 287
That Protestants‥should be‥such Felos de se, I cannot believe it.
1767
W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. II. 31
This modus is felo de se and destroys itself.
1840
T. De Quincey Style in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. July 4/1
A man‥would be a madman and a felo-de-se, as respected his reliance upon that doctrine.
