Countryside
 

Maybe I'm a bit slow on the uptake,
but I had never associated this word with
suicide, patricide...etc until I heard Stephen Fry use it
in that sense just now.

David

It's a classic case of homophones. The -cide and -side suffixes are pronounced identially, but have rather different meanings. In this case, I don't believe "countrycide" is a word; rather, the person using it would have coined the term anew from its constituent parts.

[QUOTE=mdettweiler;232272]It's a classic case of homophones. The -cide and -side suffixes are pronounced identially, but have rather different meanings. In this case, I don't believe "countrycide" is a word; rather, the person using it would have coined the term anew from its constituent parts.[/QUOTE]
I did learn as a schoolboy that Shakespeare made humour
out of the term "country matters". The presence/lack of the "o"
in the prefix "count-" is what causes mirth.

David

PS if an eagled-eyed mod would kindly transfer this to the
soap box, I will spell "countricide" as Stephen Fry
intended.

PPS does this put a new perspective on learning to count?