assassination

Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by grievances, notoriety, financial, military, political or other motives. Many times governments, corporations, organized crime or their agents order assassinations. Acts of assassination have been performed since ancient times. A person who carries out an assassination is called an assassin or hitman. Etymology The word assassin may be derived from the Arabic asasiyyin (أَسَاسِيِّين‎, ʾasāsiyyīn) from أَسَاس‎ (ʾasās, "foundation, basis") + ـِيّ‎ (-iyy), meaning "people who are faithful to the foundation [of the faith]." Assassin is often believed to derive from the word hashshashin (), and shares its etymological roots with hashish ( or ; from ). It referred to a group of Nizari Ismailis known as the Order of Assassins who worked against various political targets.