Eavesdrop

Eavesdrop

Stillicide

Noun. Latin [stillicidium; stilla a drop + cadere to fall.] Webster's Unabridged (1913) lists the defintion succinctly: "A continual falling or succession of drops; rain water falling from the eaves." The less common Nuttall Encyclopedia has it as such: "Water dripping off the eaves of a roof, or off of an icicle or stalactite" and even "Stillicide law, law regarding eavesdropping."

The birth of a metaphor!

From John Shade's most pale of fires:

"Whatever in my field of vision dwelt –
An indoor scene, hickory leaves, the svelte
Stilettos of a frozen stillicide –
Was printed on my eyelids' nether side
Where it would tarry for an hour or two,
And while this lasted all I had to do
Was close my eyes to reproduce the leaves,
Or indoor scene, or trophies of the eaves."

The suffix of "cide" is particular and most usually means "the murder of" or less formal "killing". Latin [caedere]. It makes sense, still, though begins to approach the "dreamy" when thinking of the word that way. The murdering of the drops of water, they drip and droop and fall and die. Tiny suicides, close. Stillicide: the death of rain, the act of rain raining, one in the same. Even worse if taken at face value: death of stillness. Isn't that rain, too? Stillness, petrified stillness spoiled by all that noise and movement. Not to mention how wet the whole ordeal is, sopping and making soggy all that it touches. Amicicide, Chronocide, Linguicide, Stillicide.

We reel backwards to the 17th century and find the buried word:

Stiricide
Noun. Latin.
"The falling of icicles, as from an eave."

Stirring does kill stillness and, still, an even prettier picture. The falling of icicles, as from an eave. All that clarity in all that drops.