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Definition--someone who kills someone else, especially for political or religious reasons.

Discussion--For some, having a "just" cause is a reason to kill. In this country, we believe that John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln, Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated John F. Kennedy, and James Earl Ray assassinated Marin Luther King, and Mark David Chapman assassinated John Lennon. These assassins killed because they believed it just.

Etymology--Assassin with a capital A was a member of a secret Moslem order who terrorized and killed Christian Crusaders. They were believed to be intoxicated with hashish prior to their assassinations. The term assassin is French coming from the Medieval Latin assassinus, which comes from the Arabic hashshashin, meaning a "hashish addicts". The Italian and Spanish terms are also derived from this earlier meaning of hashish eater, though this root is not present in the current meaning and usage of killing a prominent polital figure.

French:

assassin (m)

Italian:

assassino

Spanish:

asesino