Hello Sailor!

It is murder if the state sanctions it. We are not speaking of less civilised ex colonies here, we have gravitated in the debate to apply it to those countries advanced enough to have laws that stand the test of decent civilisation. Mudcat is an international site so it is relevant for us all to see how such debates pan out in each other's structures.

So you may have settled it in those states that are still playing catch up with the more mature ones, but the mini debate within the debate here is about 1st world countries, i.e., those that do not murder their citizens by judicial means.

Anyway, if you wish to use dictionary terms, OED please, and then edits since The UK matured and stop killing its citizens "legally." Your man Webster is someone our scholars use as a case study in how to abuse status by what MtheGm unwittingly calls the Lewis Carroll method.