truncate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin truncātus (“cut off”),^[2][3][4] past participle of truncō (“to maim, mutilate, cut off”),^[2][5][4] from truncus (“maimed, mutilated; trunk of a tree or body”),^[2][5][6] the source of trunk.^[3][5] Through French, the same verb gave trench and trenchant.^[7] De Vaan takes the adjective "maimed, robbed of its branches or head" as the original meaning,^[6] as does Etymonline, which calls the word of uncertain origin.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged compares Welsh trwch (“broken, truncated”) and Lithuanian trenkti (“to push violently, jolt”), and perhaps Old English þringan (“to crowd”),^[4] but de Vaan sees no compelling reason to connect the Latin word with the Lithuanian one.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To shorten by cutting off a part, or to maim, in the Blasyng of Armys of the Boke of St Albans (1486).^[5][3] Barnhart finds the verb implied in truncated.^[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged's first date for the verb is much later, about 1727.^[4] The noun truncation is older, recorded probably before 1425 in a translation of Chauliac's surgery.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

The first uses were general, including bodily maiming and figurative cutting short.^[5] Johnson (1755) gives only "to maim; to lop; to cut short".^[9] The adjective, borrowed separately from the Latin participle in 1579, at first meant "cut short, mutilated", but this soon passed out of use.^[5][10] It returned in the 18th century as a scientific term, in Halley in 1717, for something ending as if cut off square.^[5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates this to 1716.^[4] Science narrowed the verb as well: in crystallography from 1758 it meant to replace an edge or corner with a plane face,^[5][4] and in mathematics from 1955 to approximate a series by ignoring all terms beyond a chosen one.^[5]

Timeline

• 1486 – to shorten by cutting off a part; to maim.^[5][3]
• 1579 – adjective, cut short, mutilated (obsolete by 1583).^[5][3]
• 1717 – adjective, in scientific use, ending as if cut off.^[5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged has 1716.^[4]
• 1758 – in crystallography, to replace an edge or angle by a plane face.^[5]
• 1955 – in mathematics, to cut short a series.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To shorten by cutting off a part, especially the top or the end: The producer truncated the interview to fit the broadcast slot.^[11][4][10]
2. (crystallography) To replace an edge or corner of a crystal with a plane face.^[4][5]
3. (mathematics) To shorten a series or a number by dropping everything beyond a chosen term or decimal place.^[5][4]

Adjective

1. Cut short; truncated.^[11][5]
2. (biology) Having a square, blunt end, as if cut off: a truncate petal.^[11][4][10]

Word family

• truncately
• truncation
• subtruncate

Related words

• trunk
• truncheon
• trench
• trenchant

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., 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.
10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins