Truncate

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /tɹʌŋˈkeɪt/

Definitions

1. To cut off a part from something to make it shorter or smaller ; to make something briefer or less in length or time
2. To remove the end or a section of an object or text to decrease its length ; to lessen the duration or scope of something
3. To shorten by omitting a portion, often at the end ; to curtail or reduce something in length, time, or size

Etymology: "Truncate" comes from Latin "truncātus," the past participle of "truncō," a verb meaning to maim or to reduce something to a trunk. The Latin root is the same one that gave English "trunk," so the original sense is physical: lopping off a limb or cutting a tree down to its main stem. Shortening a thing by cutting it is the image the word started from. Over time the physical sense of cutting away a part loosened into the general idea of making something briefer or less complete. Today it is used of documents, speeches, numbers and data as readily as of anything with a body to lop, which is a long distance from the mutilated trunk of its Latin source.

Synonyms: shorten, abbreviate, cut, curtail, clip

Antonyms: extend, lengthen, prolong, enlarge, expand