Etymology: Originally (in α. forms) < Old French hassasis member of the Nizari sect of the Ismaili branch of Islam (end of the 12th cent. as harsasis , plural; also hausassis , plural) < Arabic ḥašīšī (see below). In later use (in β. forms) < Middle French, French assassin, †assacin, †assasin member of the Nizari sect of the Ismaili branch of Islam (1455), (probably) unscrupulous criminal who is ready to do anything (1540), murderer, especially hired murderer (although this is first attested later than in English: 1560) < Italian assassino member of the Nizari sect of the Ismaili branch of Islam (end of the 13th cent.; a1290 as †assessino ), (especially hired) murderer (a1321) < Arabic ḥašīšī member of the Nizari sect of the Ismaili branch of Islam (see note below) < ḥašīš hashish n. + -ī -i suffix². Compare post-classical Latin assasi, hassasisi, hausassasi, plural (13th cent. in British sources), assassinus (frequently from 13th cent. in British and continental sources; also as ascisinus), hasasini, plural (13th cent. in a continental source). Compare also Old Occitan ancessi (mid 12th cent.; with epenthetic -n-), asasi, Catalan assassí (1284), Spanish asesino (second half of the 14th cent.; second half of the 13th cent. as †assesino; also †asasin, †assasin (late 14th cent.)), Portuguese assassino (also †asasino; both 15th cent.), and Byzantine Greek χασίσιοι, plural.Further etymology. The Arabic name was probably originally a derogatory nickname, with reference to the supposedly erratic behaviour of the members of the sect, as if intoxicated by hashish. Earlier suggestions are that the members of the sect were so called either because they were actually addicted to hashish, or because they were encouraged by their supposed leader, the ‘Old Man of the Mountain’, to consume hashish before being sent on a mission to assassinate Christian or Muslim adversaries, so that, from the resulting hallucinatory visions, the members might gain a foretaste of the joys of paradise which, they believed, awaited them on completion of their mission. Although the story of the ‘Old Man of the Mountain’ is attested early on in many versions, at least from the end of the 12th cent., it is almost certainly a folk tale, rather than having a historical basis; one Arabic version of the tale, which became particularly well known in western Europe in the early 19th cent., was edited by J. von Hammer in 1813. See further Encycl. of Islam (ed. 2) at Ḥas̱ẖīs̱ẖiyya, and (ed. 3) at Assassins. The origin of the forms with a in the second syllable, shown by various European languages, is unclear. Although it has been suggested that such forms derive < Arabic ḥaššāš ‘person who habitually consumes hashish, hashish-eater’, this is now generally rejected, since in contemporary medieval Arabic sources the members of the Muslim sect are frequently called ḥašīšī , but never ḥaššāš . The forms in question are therefore more likely to reflect assimilation to the vowel of the first syllable (within the borrowing European languages), although it is alternatively possible that they may reflect an unattested (perhaps spoken) Arabic variant *ḥašašī ; in Arabic, the suffix -ī -i suffix² regularly causes dissimilation of a preceding i (whether long or short) to a . It has often been suggested that the forms in European languages which show -n- in the ending derive from an Arabic plural form ending in -īn ; although such an explanation is conceivable, it is unnecessary, since the Arabic suffix -ī -i suffix² was frequently adapted into Romance languages and into post-classical Latin by employing cognates of -ine suffix⁴. Form and pronunciation history. Later γ. forms (from the 19th cent.) show remodelling after the ulterior Arabic etymon. The position of the main stress apparently varied in early use; quot. 1681 at sense 2 suggests the existence of a variant with first-syllable stress in the late 17th cent.

Etymology: < French assassiner (mid 16th cent. in Middle French) < assassin assassin n. Compare earlier assassinist n. Compare also earlier assassinate v.