Also 7 assassine, -asin(e, -acine. [a. F. assassin, or ad. It. assassino: cf. also Pr. assassin, Pg. assassino, Sp. asesino, med.L. assassīnus (OF. forms were assacin, asescin, asisim, hasisin, hassissin, haussasin, etc.; med.L. (pl.) assessini, ascisini, etc.), ad. Arab. ḥashshāshīn and ḥashīshiyyīn, pl. of ḥashshāsh and ḥashīshiyy, lit. ‘a hashish-eater, one addicted to hashish,’ both forms being applied in Arabic to the Ismāsīli sectarians, who used to intoxicate themselves with hashish or hemp, when preparing to dispatch some king or public man. The OF. variants, (pl.) assacis, hassisis, haississis, med.L. assasi, haussasi, med.Gr. χασίσιοι, point to the Arabic singular, but the form finally established in the European languages arises from the Arab. plural, as in Bedouin; cf. also It. cherubino, serafino, F. and earlier Eng. cherubin, seraphin (sing.). Naturally the plural was first in use, in the historical sense, and occurred in Eng. in the Lat. or It. form before assassin was naturalized: the latter was still accented a·ssassin by Oldham in 1679.]
1. lit. A hashish-eater. Hist. (in pl.) Certain Moslem fanatics in the time of the Crusades, who were sent forth by their sheikh, the ‘Old Man of the Mountains,’ to murder the Christian leaders.
[c. 1237. R. Wendover, Flores Hist. (1841), II. II. 246. Hos tam Saraceni quam Christiani Assisinos appellant.]
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1638), 120. This messenger … was … one of the Assasines, a company of most desperat and dangerous men among the Mahometans.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. x. 5. That bloudy Sect of Sarazens, called Assassini, who, without feare of torments, vndertake … the murther of any eminent Prince, impugning their irreligion.
c. 1860. J. Wolff. The assassins, who are otherwise called the People of the Man of the Mountain, before they attacked an enemy, would intoxicate themselves with a powder made of hemp-leaves, out of which they prepared an inebriating electuary, called hashish.
2. Hence: One who undertakes to put another to death by treacherous violence. The term retains so much of its original application as to be used chiefly of the murderer of a public personage, who is generally hired or devoted to the deed, and aims purely at the death of his victim.
[a. 1259. M. Paris, Angl. Hist. Maj. (1589), 459. Qui tandem confessus est, se missum illuc, vt Regem more assessinorum occideret, à VVillielmo de Marisco.]
1531. Dial. Laws Eng., II. xli. (1638), 133. Hee is an Ascisinus [printed Ascismus] that will slay men for money at the instance of every man that will move him to it, and such a man may lawfully be slaine … by every private person.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. iii. I. iii. Men of all others fit to be assassins.
1679. Oldham, Sat. Jesuits (1686), 7. Think on that matchless Assassin, whose name We with just pride can make our happy claim.
1702. Rowe, Tamerlane, III. i. 1330. When bold Assassines take thy Name upon ’em.
1778. Wolcott (P. Pindar), To Reviewers, Wks. 1812, I. 5. That stabbed like brave assassins in the dark.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. xxi. 668. Barclay’s assassins were hunted like wolves by the whole population.
3. fig. or transf.
1736. Thomson, Liberty, V. 385. The hir’d assassins of the Commonweal.
1824. Dibdin, Libr. Comp., 744. Lord Byron was the assassin of his own fame.
4. attrib. and in comb., as assassin-like.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 219. Who, to surprize One man, Assassin-like, had levied Warr, Warr unproclam’d.
1847. Disraeli, Tancred, IV. ix. (1871), 305. He caught in his hand the assassin spear.
