Harakiri

[pat]

I'm wondering if this might be suitable for inclusion as a rare word. It's often, probably usually, written as two hyphenated words but there are also examples of it written as a single word, not least in the title of a 1962 film.

[blackrockrose]

I tried it too, but, like you, wasn't sure that it wasn't more regularly used in the hyphenated form.

[Alan W]

Most dictionaries give the hyphenated form, hara-kiri, but Macquarie has it as one word, and Wiktionary allows that as an option. In use, both are quite often seen. In contemporary periodicals the word is mostly used in a figurative sense. Often this is in a sporting context, as in this sentence from a cricket report on the India TV News website in January this year:

But then, all hell broke loose as Lungi Ngidi and Kagiso Rabada ripped apart the Indian line-up in just 11 balls even as the harakiri of the batters also contributed to the crazy collapse.

At least, I suppose the batters didn't ritually disembowel themselves, but I don't follow the cricket closely.

I'll add harakiri as a rare word.

[pat]

Thanks, Alan.