One of the examples in my English composition book (for learning to write my language's sentences in English) was "Why he committed suicide under such a good circumstance is an unsolved question.", but what I would have written would have been "Why he suicided...".
What's the difference between "commit suicide" and "suicide"? (I think I saw 'commit suicide' more than just 'suicide', and the spell checker of Google Chrome says that 'suicided' is not a word, even though I think it isn't wrong.)
There is no difference semantically. The only difference is that "suicide" as a verb is so rare I have never seen it before; whereas "commit suicide" is common. I would advise against unusual usages in general: You might confuse people, which is ill-advised, and in this case it is totally non-constructive to the language.
Both the NOAD and the OED (the electronic version available on my Mac) reports that suicide is also a verb, and it means "intentionally kill oneself."
The example given by both the dictionaries is the following:
She suicided in a very ugly manner.
This meaning of suicide is not reported to be literary, archaic, or poetic.
The same dictionaries report that commit in commit suicide means "carry out or perpetrate (a mistake, crime, or immoral act)."
He committed an uncharacteristic error.
While there is no difference between "to commit suicide" and "to suicide" [1]. Note that "suicide" can also be used to refer to the subject of the suicide. So while you can say "He committed suicide" you could also say "He is a suicide".
([1] Although I would always use the first as it is, as has been said, far more common. )
As to why it is "committed" and not something else, I suspect it's one of two reasons.
The word, committed, has a finality associated with it. If you commit to something, you are making a pledge to do that thing and not go back on your pledge. Or, you may commit something to memory; the thought being that rather than it being a passing thing you have remembered, it is there for the long term.
Either that, or perhaps it is that "commited" is also often used in place of "perpetrated" in regard to crime. And until very recently (the 60's I think) in the U.K at least, suicide or attempted suicide was considered a crime. (Whether this was/is true in other parts of the world I don't know.)
"Commit Suicide" is falling out of usage since we use commit to infer a crime. eg: As others have mentioned "commit murder". Those in Suicide intervention and mental health advocacy do not use the phrase because it implies an illegal act. It is not illegal to die by suicide (a preferred phrase). Suicide is seen as a failure of society's safeguards more than an act of a crime by the person who has died.
I think the difference between suicide and other verbs is that suicide used to be a crime, and so has the same form as other crimes or things that used to be crimes.
Commit has the meaning to perpetrate, so any verb that is/was a crime, can be committed.
In this sense, suicide is not being used as a verb, but a gerund.
So, you can commit
The verb suicide doesn't necessarily convey intent, while commit suicide does. Other than that, they mean exactly the same thing.
I have a different perception: Primarily, an intention is always involved in an act of suicide. It means that no suicide can ever take place without one's intention. If anyone dies without his/ her own intention, it is regarded as a natural death or accidental death and if the same person dies at the hand of others, then it is a murder. Hence, all the above arguments are baseless at this context. If you apply a little more logic, you could see in this case 'commit suicide' is a phrase widely used in legal contexts implying that one commits a crime of suicide by the act of killing one self. If anyone talks about suicide, he is speaking, knowingly or unknowingly, about the crime of committing suicide. Otherwise, he would say 'one killed himself'.
"Commit suicide" is commonly used but eschewed by the thanatologists. It perpetuates legal and religious overtones to the act of killing oneself. Commit refers to mortal sins (as defined by the Catholic church) prior to St. Augustine, it was seen as a laudable act of fidelity to god to be a martyr. Additionally commit refers to a legal act. Suicide is no longer considered a crime punishable by law.
The distinction is important for people who are suicidal. To use 'commit' has a terrible implication to people who feel that way and those around them, as if they were committing a crime.
In Japanese language - they do not put 'commit' with 'hari-kiri' but simply the verb 'do'.
Commit seams to imply a 'wilfulness' or 'determination'. I feel it is quite insensitive to believe that people are determined to suicide - as they may feel they have no choice.
