[1720–30; ‹ L vāti- (s. of vātēs seer) + -cide]This word is first recorded in the period 1720–30. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: catchword, cordon bleu, deadwood, personify, stylus-cide is a learned borrowing from Latin meaning “killer,” “act of killing,” used in theformation of compound words. Other words that use the affix -cide include: homicide, pesticide