parricide

[Fr., from Latin parricida =a murderer of his father; parricidium =the murder of one's father; from pater (gen it. patris ) =a father, and cædo (in comp. cido )=to kill; Ital. & Sp. parr i cid a =the murderer of a father; parricidio =the murder of a father.] 1. (Lat. parricida .) One who murders his father. (Sometimes extended to the murder of a mother.) *2. One who murders an ancestor, or one to whom he owes reverence. 3. The murder of a parent, or one to whom reverence is due. 4. (See extract.) "By the Roman law parricide , or the murder of one's parents or children, was punished in a much severer manner than any other kind of homicide. After being scourged, the delinquents were sewed up in a leathern sack with a live dog, a cock, a viper, and an ape, and so cast into the sea."- Black stone : Commentaries, bk. iv., ch. xiv. *păr-ri-çid-i-ous, *par-i-ci-do us, a. [Latin parricidium =parricide.] The same as PARRICIDAL (q. v.). "That is, he is now paid in his own way, the paricidous animal [the viper] and punishment of murtherers is upon him."-Browne: " -Browne : Vulgar Errors, bk. iii., ch. xvi. păr-ri-næ, s. pl . [Lat. parr (a); fem. pl. adj. suff.-inæ.] Ornithology: Jacanas, a sub-family of Rallide, ( Bowdler Sharpe .) The claws are very long and straight. păr-ritch, păr'-ridge, s. [PORRIDGE.] păr-rock, s . [A. S. pearroc , pearruc .] A croft, an inclosure, a small field. ( Prov .) [PADDOCK.] păr-rot, *par-at, *par-rat, s. [Fr. perrot , a proper name, dim in. of Peter .] I. Ordinary Language : 1. Lit .: In the same sense as II. 1. "And wandring thus certain daies in these unknowen seas, hunger constrained vs to eate hides, cats, and dogs, mice, rats, parrots, and munkies."-Hackluyt: Voyages, iii. 473. 2. Figuratively : (1) A talkative, chattering, or go iping person; a chatterbox. (2) One who imitates or repeats the actions or speeches of another. "The Romans, in all scientific matters, were merely the parrots of the Greeks," -Max Müller : Science of Lan guage , lect. iv. II. Technically : 1. Ornith .: The popular name for any individual of a well-known group of birds from the warmer regions of the globe, remarkable for the brilliant, and in some cases gaudy, coloration of their plumage, and the facility with which many of them notably the genera Chrysotis, Palæornis, and Psit tacus - acquire and repeat words and phrases. "The almost universal distribution of Parrots wherever the climate is sufficiently mild or uniform to furnish them with a perennial supply of food, no le than their varied details of organization, combined with a great uniformity of general type, tell us, in unmistakable language, of a very remote antiquity."-Wallace: Geog. Dist. Anim . , ii. 330. 2. Ichthy.: The parrot-fish (q. v.). parrot-coal, s. Petrol.: A name given to anthracite (q. v.), be cause of the crackling or chattering noise it makes when burnt.