Behead

[Brian Austin]

The word 'behead' has bothered me for some time.

The 'be-' prefix usually conveys a sort of attachment: bewhiskered,
bejeweled, bespectacled. But beheading has nothing to do with
attachment; quite the opposite, in fact.

I think a better word would be 'dehead'.

- Brian

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[Peter Moylan]

Post by Brian Austin
The word 'behead' has bothered me for some time.
The 'be-' prefix usually conveys a sort of attachment: bewhiskered,
bejeweled, bespectacled. But beheading has nothing to do with
attachment; quite the opposite, in fact.
I think a better word would be 'dehead'.

Putting a head on would be 'adhead'.

Removing it again would be 'deadhead'.

[Richard Tobin]

Post by Brian Austin
The word 'behead' has bothered me for some time.
The 'be-' prefix usually conveys a sort of attachment: bewhiskered,
bejeweled, bespectacled. But beheading has nothing to do with
attachment; quite the opposite, in fact.

It's the same be- prefix as in "bereave".

-- Richard

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

Post by Richard Tobin

Post by Brian Austin
The word 'behead' has bothered me for some time.
The 'be-' prefix usually conveys a sort of attachment: bewhiskered,
bejeweled, bespectacled. But beheading has nothing to do with
attachment; quite the opposite, in fact.

It's the same be- prefix as in "bereave".
-- Richard

Yes.

That sense of be- in the OED:

3. Forming derivative verbs with privative meaning ‘off, away,’ as
in bedeal v., benim v., bereave v. A very common use of be- in Old
English and Middle English, probably originating in words like
beshear v., ‘to cut all round,’ whence ‘to cut off or away’; but no
longer in living use in forming new derivatives.

[Lewis]

Post by Brian Austin
The word 'behead' has bothered me for some time.
The 'be-' prefix usually conveys a sort of attachment: bewhiskered,
bejeweled, bespectacled. But beheading has nothing to do with
attachment; quite the opposite, in fact.

But "usually" is not the same as "always" and many prefixes have
different meanings.

Post by Brian Austin
I think a better word would be 'dehead'.

But that doesn't make any sense. denude means to "strip nude/bare" and
why would you want to "strip head"?