Beheads

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To cut off the head of a living being, typically as a method of execution or punishment
2. To sever the head from the body as a form of punishment or execution
3. To remove the uppermost part of a creature's body by separating the skull

Etymology: The verb "beheads" is simply the third-person singular present form of "behead," so what matters is the verb itself. Its core is the ordinary noun "head," joined to a prefix "be-" that in Old English meant something like "off" or "away," so to behead was literally to deal with someone by taking the head off. The Old English verb "behēafdian" was built this way, and the same construction appears in the related Middle High German "behoubeten," which points to a shared ancestor in the early Germanic languages. Over the Middle English period the verb's spelling wandered through forms such as "beheden" and "biheveden" before settling into the modern shape. The prefix "be-" was a productive tool for making verbs meaning "to do something to" or "to cover or remove," which is why English has so many parallel formations, and "behead" is one of the older, plainer examples of the pattern.

Synonyms: decapitates, executes, kills, slays, removes heads