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Latest comment: 4 months ago6 comments5 people in discussion
Recently, user Editor510 changed committed suicide on this page citing MOS:SUICIDE. This particular MOS is specifically for Medical Related articles and not historical scholarship. To this end, I explained on that editor's Talk Page that for historians, a person "commits" suicide. The argument that "commit suicide" is linguistically inaccurate typically rests on the claim that "commit" carries inherent moral or legal opprobrium (which was the basis of the edit summary). This implies wrongdoing, as in "commit a crime" or "commit a sin" — and that its application to suicide therefore stigmatizes the act and, by extension, those who die by it or those at risk. The counter-argument for its linguistic accuracy is straightforward and rests on the etymology and semantic range of "commit" rather than on its most common colloquial associations. "Commit" derives from the Latin committere—meaning to bring together, to entrust, to perpetrate—and in English carries a broad range of uses that have nothing inherently pejorative about them: one commits to a course of action, commits resources, commits oneself to a relationship or a position. The core semantic content is of decisive, intentional action--the bringing about of something through deliberate agency.
On this reading, "commit suicide" is linguistically sound precisely because it captures the element of intentional agency that distinguishes suicide from accidental death or homicide. To "commit" an act is to be its author in a meaningful sense, and suicide—whatever its moral or medical valence—is by definition a self-directed act. The phrase encodes that distinction accurately. The stigma argument, while well-intentioned and clinically motivated, conflates a word's semantic content with its most frequent contextual associations. That "commit" often co-occurs with crimes in common usage does not make criminality part of its meaning. Instead, it makes it a pragmatic implicature, which is a different and weaker claim. Language reform on those grounds substitutes associative discomfort for semantic analysis. Thoughts from others? Obenritter (talk) 19:38, 1 April 2026 (UTC)Reply
I agree with Editor510 and the style guides cited at MOS:SUICIDE that "committed suicide" carries a strong implication of a criminal act and primarily makes sense in that context. If I understand Obenritter's view correctly, it's that the word is associated with how "committed" the individual was when performing the act. That's a personal and colloquial interpretation, substituting the meaning of the adjective committed for the past-tense of the crime-associated verb commit (same spelling). UpdateNerd (talk) 20:05, 1 April 2026 (UTC)Reply
UpdateNerd – Committing suicide is a violent act against the self for starters. Under those auspices, it is a crime against one's very own person. Secondly, you've missed the point about the Latin etymological roots of the word "commit", which is by no means a "personal" or a "colloquial interpretation". This is semantic analysis and the euphemistic approach being applied by terms like "died by suicide" does not make this any clearer in English. The attempt to neutralize the vocabulary doesn't actually change the ontological reality of the act. In German, the word is Selbstmord (to murder the self) so when we compare "committed suicide," or "died by suicide," the underlying phenomenon is the same: a person has directed lethal violence at themselves. Sanitizing the language doesn't alter that fact; it arguably just obscures it. BTW, on the very MOS page (which is explicitly directed at medical related articles and not historical ones like the page in question) it even states, "The phrase committed suicide is neither recommended nor banned on the English Wikipedia". Also "Committed suicide" preserves the agentive, volitional character of the act — and in these cases, that agency matters historically. These were calculated final acts, often timed to avoid capture, justice, and accountability. Himmler's cyanide capsule, Goebbels poisoning his own children before killing himself and his wife, Hitler's death in the Führerbunker—these were not deaths that happened to these men. They were deliberate evasions of consequence. The language should reflect that. Soliciting the opinions of other editors who know this subject and edit these scholarly domains: @Nick-D:@K.e.coffman:@Kierzek:@GeneralizationsAreBad:@EyeTruth:@Beyond My Ken:@Diannaa:@Peacemaker67:@Nillurcheier:@Xenomorph 001:--Obenritter (talk) 10:58, 2 April 2026 (UTC)Reply
This has been previously discussed over the last few years. My opinion has not changed. First, as an attorney, I can tell you that the word "commit" is not a "colloquial" term as alleged by UpdateNerd. Secondly, Obenritter is correct the wording states specifically the action taken. The word "commit" should not be limited in an obtuse way. The person in question choose to commit a specific voluntarily act. Third, to change "committed suicide" goes against the 2021 RFC mentioned at MOS:SUICIDE, as noted above. Footnote: Since other past interested editors have now been pinged by Obenritter, should add @Pincrete:, as well. Kierzek (talk) 14:08, 2 April 2026 (UTC)Reply
Briefly I concur with nearly everything said by Obenritter & Kierzek. I'm sure that the origins of the expression 'commit suicide' lie in suicide historically being illegal and/or immoral (one also 'commits adultery', even in places where to do so has been a 'sin', but never been a crime). However the origins of words and expressions do not relate directly to their usage, otherwise we would ban the word 'hysteria', which comes from the Greek for 'womb', which hysterical behaviour was thought to be a malady of. Personally I don't have a problem with the expression 'commit suicide', and in the cases of the leading Nazis, any kind of euphemistic rendering would seem totally inapt. They all made conscious decisions rather than 'face the consequences', heaven forbid that we imply that they broke laws. Pincrete (talk) 18:55, 2 April 2026 (UTC)Reply
Not done please provide a reliable source. lp0 on fire () 11:27, 24 February 2026 (UTC)