Etymologically
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amputo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈam.pʊ.toː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈam.pu.to][1]

Forms

amputō (present infinitive amputāre, perfect active amputāvī, supine amputātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ambi- + putō (“to prune”);[2][3] Festus, as epitomized by Paul the Deacon, explains ⟨amputata⟩ as “pruned around”.[4] De Vaan takes putō from the adjective putus (“clean, pure”): it first meant to cut off unwanted branches, whence “to reckon, think”; the adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *putos and Proto-Indo-European *pHu-tó-.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first example in the OLD is in Lucilius, of cutting off both testicles.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to cut off a limb, a branch or anything that projects, as in Horace's pruning of useless branches with a hook, and to prune or cut back a plant, as Cicero's vine that the farmer keeps in check with the knife.[2][4] Figuratively it is to prune away faults, as Cicero's young man in whom there is something to cut back, to take away or cut off, and to cut down a number or shorten a speech.[2] Seneca uses it of cutting bodies in pieces.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “cut off, amputate, take away, remove”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius of cutting off a limb.[2][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of pruning vines and faults.[2][7]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of pruning branches.[2][7]
  • 1630s – Its past participle gives English amputate.[8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To cut off, lop off; to amputate a limb.[2][4][1]
  2. To prune, cut back a plant; to cut in pieces.[2][4][1]
  3. To remove, eradicate faults; to take away; to cut short, curtail.[2][4][1]

Word family

  • amputātiō
  • sēmiamputātus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com