3 ms·
There's a very big difference. Assassination = murder of a prominent person for political reasons, often carried out by a third party (an assassin). Slaying =
by elgenie 9y ago
There's a very big difference.
Assassination = murder of a prominent person for political reasons, often carried out by a third party (an assassin).
Slaying = a killing. That's it. Besides not having any political motive, a slaying isn't even necessarily murder; killing someone in war, in self-defense or on accident is still a slaying.
- mamon 9y agoI always thought that slaying refers to non-human victims, as in "slaying the dragon"
- test1235 9y agoin medieval times, it was common to refer to war casualties as having been 'slain in battle'. I don't know what the etymology of the word is, but I get the impression it implies death by close combat. I personally wouldn't describe a bomb victim as having been 'slain'. There could also just be a translation thing going on here, by someone whose first language isn't English.
- elgenie 9y ago"Slaying" is mostly archaic outside of literary contexts at this point, but it does refer to both humans and animals. It's still used pretty often in North American crime journalism. Some AP stories from the past two weeks found with a quick Google using "slaying" to refer to the killing of humans: * https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2017-10-12/3-people-fatally-shot-in-southern-ohio-8-year-old-missing https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2017-10-12/3-people-... * https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/philly-man-arrested-in-community-activists-slaying/ https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/philly-man-arreste... * https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/connecticut/articles/2017-09-27/judge-to-question-man-on-slain-wifes-estate-worth-642 https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/connecticut/articles...