resection

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin resectiō (“a cutting back, pruning”),^[2][3][4][5] a noun of action formed from resectus, the past participle of resecō (“to cut off, cut loose, curtail”),^[3][4][6] with the suffix -iō.^[2][5] The verb is formed from re-, here perhaps intensive, and secō (“to cut”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”).^[3] The OED thinks the English word may partly have been formed from the prefix re- and section, and that the surveying sense is perhaps a separate formation of this kind, after intersection.^[2] It compares Middle French resection, recorded in 1549 for a cutting off and in 1799 for the surgical removal of part of a bone.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of cutting something off or away: 1610, in Edmund Bolton's Elements of Armories.^[2][7] Etymonline also dates the word to the 1610s,^[3] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1610.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The general sense "a cutting off" was used only in the 17th century, until 1689, and is now obsolete.^[2][7][6] The surgical sense, the cutting out of a bone, tumour or part of an organ, followed in 1646 according to the revised OED,^[2] though Etymonline dates it to 1775 and the Shorter Oxford to the late 18th century;^[3][7] it is the only sense still in general use.^[3] The related verb resect took its surgical sense in the same way, from 1835.^[2] In 1855 the word was applied in surveying to fixing one's position from the bearings of known points,^[2] a sense Collins describes as working from angular observations to three fixed points.^[8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged notes that surgeons sometimes distinguish resection from excision.^[6]

Timeline

• 1610 – the action of cutting off or away (obsolete by 1689).^[2][6]
• 1646 – in surgery, the removal of a bone, tumour or part of an organ.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1775.^[3]
• 1855 – in surveying, fixing a position from the bearings of known points.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The surgical removal of part of an organ, bone or other structure: a resection of the small intestine.^[8][6][2]
2. In surveying, a method of fixing the position of a point by taking bearings or angular observations to points whose positions are known.^[8][6][2]
3. (obsolete, 1610–1689) The act of cutting or paring something off.^[6][2][7]

Word family

• resectional

Related words

• resectoscope
• resect
• section
• sect
• intersection
• excision

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins