mutilation

Etymology

It is borrowed from Anglo-Norman mutilacion, also mutilation, and Middle French mutilation,^[2][3] and partly borrowed from Late Latin mutilātiō,^[2][3][4][5] a noun of action from mutilātus, the past participle of mutilō (“to cut or lop off, to mutilate”),^[3][4][5] from mutilus (“maimed, mutilated, truncated”).^[3][6] Etymonline calls the origin of mutilus uncertain,^[3] and de Vaan gives it no etymology, citing only Old Irish mut and mutach (“short”) as cognates.^[6] The French word is recorded from the mid-13th century for the removal of a limb or other part of the body, from 1559 for the partial destruction of a work of art, and since the late 17th century for castration.^[2] The Anglo-Norman form is recorded from 1404.^[7] In Latin, mutilātiō first meant the truncation of a word or a line of verse (late 3rd century), and about 400 the mutilation of the body, of circumcision.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Scots law, the act of disabling or maiming a person by wounding a limb or organ: 1517, in the Sheriff Court Book of Fife.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1520s,^[3] and the Shorter Oxford to the early 16th century.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a legal term in Scotland, where the OED now marks the sense as historical.^[2] The general sense, the cutting off or maiming of a limb or organ of a person or animal, is recorded from 1611, in Cotgrave's French–English dictionary,^[2] and Johnson (1755) defined it as "deprivation of a limb, or any essential part".^[9] From 1638, in Thomas Herbert's travels, it was also used of things, especially of a book or text made imperfect by cutting out or destroying parts of it;^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1630s.^[3] A rare sense, castration, is recorded in Chambers's Cyclopædia (1728).^[2]

Timeline

• 1517 – in Scots law, the maiming of a person by wounding a limb.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1520s.^[3]
• 1611 – the cutting off or maiming of a limb or organ, in Cotgrave.^[2]
• 1638 – the making of something, especially a book or text, imperfect by removing parts.^[2][3]
• 1728 – castration (rare, obsolete).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of mutilating a person or animal; the cutting off or severe injury of a limb or other essential part, or the state that results: The fox escaped the trap, but not without mutilation.^[4][2][8]
2. An instance of mutilating.^[4][2]
3. The damaging of a thing, especially a book or text, by cutting out or destroying parts of it: the mutilation of the manuscript by later censors.^[2][8]

Word family

• self-mutilation

Related words

• mutilate

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.