Amputate
/ˈæm.pjə.teɪt/noun
To cut off a limb or other body part, especially in surgery.
Did you know?Amputate comes from Latin amputare, built from ambi- (“around”) + putare (“to prune, trim, cleanse”), so its oldest sense was literally “to prune around.”
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*peu-
“to cut, cleanse, prune”
Latin
Latin
putare
“to prune, trim, cleanse; later to reckon, think”
Latin
Latin
amputare
“to cut around; to prune; later to cut off”
Late Latin
Latin
amputatus
“cut off, pruned”
Middle French
Old French
amputer
“to cut off”
Modern English
English
amputate
“to surgically remove a limb or other body part”