amputate
UK[ˈæmpjuteɪt]US[ˈæmpjəˌteɪt]
v
to cut off a part of a person's body, especially an arm or a leg, for medical reasons
v
to remove or cut off something as if by surgery
Etymology
the verb 'amputate' entered english in the 1630s, directly from the latin 'amputatus', the past participle of 'amputare', meaning "to cut off, to prune, to lop away." this latin term is itself a compound, formed from 'amb-' (meaning "around") and 'putare' (meaning "to prune, to trim, to reckon"). the original sense was a horticultural one, referring to the trimming of plants. the specific surgical meaning of cutting off a limb emerged in english by the 1670s, applying the logic of cutting away and removing a part from the whole body, much like pruning a branch from a tree. the semantic shift from pruning plants to surgical removal illustrates a metaphorical extension based on the shared action of cutting off.
Analysis
the word is a simplex loanword from latin and does not contain separable morphemes in its modern english spelling.
Examples
the surgeon had to amputate the gangrenous limb to save the patient's life.
after the accident, they feared the doctors would amputate his crushed foot.
the editor decided to amputate the final chapter from the manuscript entirely.