The act of killing a bishop or destroying the office of bishop; murder of a church leader with high authority.
From Latin 'episcopus' (bishop) combined with '-cide' (killing), derived from Latin 'caedere' (to kill). The term emerged in medieval ecclesiastical contexts to describe regicide-level crimes against church hierarchy.
This word reveals how seriously medieval societies took their church leadership—killing a bishop was considered so heinous it needed its own special term, similar to 'regicide' for kings. It shows language evolving to match the power structures of different eras.
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