The magnificent, liquid word 'suicide' emerged in the heart of the baroque world. Up to that point, French legal scholars and priests with their Latin employed circumlocution. They spoke of 'self-inflicted' or 'impetuous' death. Religion and superstitution no doubt didn't wishthis decisive act to become a common noun. By denying it a place in the dictionary, they hoped, perhaps, to drive the sun out of reality. But what was Lancelot doing when, believing Guinevere to be dead, he tied a rope to the pommel of his saddle? What was Roland doing in the rocky recess at Roncevaux, renouncing flight and refusing surrender? In order to designate the 'homocide of someone who is not a third party', the theologians of the Church of Rome formed a Laton word by adding sui and caedes together. Literally: of oneself the murder. In 1652 Caramuel entitled a chapter of his Theologia moralis fundamentalis 'De suicidio' – on suicide. The word was employed first in England, then in France and Italy, before reaching Spain.

Pascal Quignard, The Silent Crossing