phon-, phono-

(Greek: (classic and modern) phono, phonos; slaughter, kill, murder, homicide)

Don't confuse this phono-, phon- with another phono-, phon-, etc. that means "sound, voice, speech". In Greek, a distinction is made between the phonos (PHOH nohs), "murder", which is spelled with the letter omicron in the last syllable; and the Greek phonos (phoh NOHS), "voice", which is spelled with the letter omega in the last syllable. Both omicron and omega became the letter "o" in English.

androphonomania (s) (noun), androphonomanias (pl)
Homicidal insanity or the killing or murder of one person by another one.
Androphonos, androphonos
Man-slayer; a murderer, a killer.

As Goddess of Death-in-Life, Aphrodite earned many titles which seem inconsistent with her beauty and complaisance or inclination to comply willingly with the wishes of others.

At Athens, she was called the eldest of the Fates and sister of the Erinnyes: and in other places Melaenis (black one), a name meaning that most love-making takes place at night; Scotia (dark one); Androphonos (man-slayer), and, according to Plutarch, Epitymbria (of the tombs).

—Compiled from information located at
The Greek Myths: Vol. 1, by Robert Graves;
Penguin Books, Ltd; Middlesex, England; 1974; page 72.
autophonomania (s) (noun), autophonomanias (pl)
1. An obsessive desire to commit suicide.
2. A condition in which someone is suicidal.
buphonia
In Greek antiquities, a sacrificial ceremony, forming part of the Dilpolia, a religious festival held on the 14th of the month of Skirophorion (June-July) at Athens, when a laboring ox was sacrificed to Zeus Polieus as protector of the city in accordance with a very ancient custom.

The ox was driven to the altar, on which grain was spread, by members of the family of the Kentriadae, on whom this duty was hereditarily given. When the ox began to eat, one of the family of the Thaulonidae advanced with an axe, killed the ox, then immediately threw the axe away and fled.

The axe, being polluted by murder, was now carried before the court of the Prytaneurn, that tried inanimate objects for homicide, and there the axe was charged with, and convicted, of having caused the death of the ox, after which it was thrown into the sea.

Although the slaughter of a laboring ox was forbidden, it was considered excusable in exceptional circumstances; however, it was regarded as a murder and so its killing instrument was "punished".

—Compiled from information located at
Classic Encyclopedia, based on the 11th edition
of the Encyclopedia Britannica published in 1911.
phonomania
Defined as homicidal mania (where Greek phonos = murder); an older term for homicidomania.
phonos
Modern Greek for "death, kill, killing, murder, murdering", etc.
  • Dolophonos, a reference to the person who is a killer or murderer.
  • Phonos, a noun meaning, "killer, murderer, slayer, manslayer, mankiller, homicide, etc.
  • Present tense verb, phonevi.
  • Past tense verb, phonephsa.
  • Future tense verb, tha phonephse.
pseudophonia
Suicide disguised as murder.

Related "death, dead; kill" units: -cide; lethal-; mort-; neci-; necro-; thanato-.