pseudocide

[soo-duh-sahyd]

noun

1. faked death.

   The staged evidence for his pseudocide included a message of apologetic hopelessness and an abandoned sailboat adrift at sea.

Word History and Origins

Origin of pseudocide¹

First recorded in 1955–60; pseudo- ( def. ) + -cide ( def. )

Example Sentences

Faking your own death, also known as a staged death or pseudocide, "isn't inherently a crime," James Quiggle of the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud said to Live Science in 2012, "but it involves so many built-in frauds that it's virtually impossible to legally fake."

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His criminal history also revealed that Rackstraw had previously committed fraud, forgery, airplane theft, domestic abuse and, in one instance, pseudocide.

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Solid information is scarce, but “Missing on 9/11” rarely feels like it’s treading water — in one especially compelling chapter, the host, Jon Walczak, enlists an expert on the art of “pseudocide,” a.k.a. faking your own death.

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Eventually, though, she decides that the “hubris” required to concoct a pseudocide is at odds with the “humility” needed to really pull it off.

Read more on Slate

Both of them insist that ghosting rather than faking your death is the way to ditch your old life and responsibilities; death fraud, or pseudocide, is too difficult and too easy to botch.

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