why is it that when an important person is killed (such as a president), it's termed assasination, but when joe blow down the street is killed he was murdered?
2006-06-30 21:21:40 · 14 answers · asked by chapped lips 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Other - Society & Culture
Assassination is the deliberate killing of an important person, usually a political figure or other strategically important individual. An assassin (one who carries out an assassination), or the assassin's employer, usually has an ideological or political agenda, and regards the target as a serious obstacle to furthering their agenda.
In criminal law, murder is the crime of causing the death of other human beings, without lawful excuse, which is traditionally termed "malice aforethought".
2006-06-30 21:24:30 · answer #1 · answered by butireallyam_nikkijd 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The words "murder" and "assisinate" come into English from different sources.
Assasine comes to us from French and Italian in the 16th century from the Arabic word "hashishiyyin" which means "hashish-users" a term applied to a fanatical Muslim sect of pot heads during the time of the Crusades. The leader of this sect Hasan ibu-al-Sabbah was known for murdering opposing leaders after getting high on hash. Europeans added the -in to hashish and the word eventually morphed into Assasin. So that word has always meant the killing of political figures.
Keep in mind that "Assisinate" is only applied to political figures... not to celebrities.
Murder comes to english through the much more traditional Anglo-French route. Notice its similarity to similar words in romantic langues like muerte (Spanish for death)
2006-07-01 04:40:45 · answer #2 · answered by John H 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
just because that's the basic definition of an assasination: the murder of a famous person. an assasination is a murder, but a murder is not necessarily always an assasination. are you upset that if you get killed it won't be termed an assasination?
2006-07-01 04:24:15 · answer #3 · answered by ♥ it's katie 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Assassination is the deliberate killing of an important person, usually a political figure or other strategically important individual. An assassin (one who carries out an assassination), or the assassin's employer, usually has an ideological or political agenda, and regards the target as a serious obstacle to furthering their agenda.
In criminal law, murder is the crime of causing the death of other human beings, without lawful excuse, which is traditionally termed "malice aforethought".
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/assassinati...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/murder...
2006-07-01 04:28:06 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
An assassination is a planed attack that is carried out by ways of an ambush.
A murder happens when Joe Blow is caught screwing his neighbor's wife.
2006-07-01 04:30:27 · answer #5 · answered by my_alias_id 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
something to do with the origin of the word...i have seen "murders" on t v where they say "he was killed assasination style"
2006-07-01 04:25:05 · answer #6 · answered by Happy Summer 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
joe blow wasn't a politian so they used the word murder. asassination has more syllables and so is reserved for polititians the media thinks are important.
2006-07-01 04:26:58 · answer #7 · answered by Stuie 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think it's sorted by the contribution that person made to society or how much of an impact that person has made on this planet.
2006-07-01 04:26:03 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
imp persons in the past just wanted to make themselves even more imp after death so they created this word. Now the present imp people are just going along with it :p
2006-07-01 04:29:21 · answer #9 · answered by shaggy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think assassination means to remove someone form office who represent their people. But I'm not sure.
2006-07-01 04:26:16 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋