A form of ritualized suicide in ancient Japan where a warrior would cut their belly with a knife; also used to mean self-destruction or doing something that destroys oneself.
From Japanese 'hara' (belly) + 'kiru' (to cut), literally 'belly-cutting'; romanized as 'harakiri' in the 1800s when Westerners learned about samurai traditions.
Samurai practiced this as a way to take responsibility for defeat with honor—modern usage like 'political harakiri' is borrowed metaphorically to mean deliberately destroying one's own career or reputation.
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