To cut off someone's head, typically as a form of execution or punishment.
From 'be-' (to make) and 'head.' The prefix 'be-' is Old English and creates verbs meaning 'to cause to be.' Beheading was a common execution method across cultures.
Beheading as execution reflects a psychological truth about humans—we identify people by their faces, so decapitation was seen as the ultimate erasure of identity, not just death, which is why it was reserved for the most severe punishments.
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