Brewer's: Felo de Se

The act of a suicide when he commits self-murder. Murder is felony, and a man who murders himself commits this felony —felo de se.

“A felo-de-se, therefore, is he that deliberately puts an end to his own existence.” —Blackstone: Commentaries, book iv. chap. xiv. p. 189.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894

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