The story
- Old English · inherited frombeċeorfan“to becarve, cut off, separate, cut or pare away, deprive a person of something by cutting, amputate, behead”
- Middle English · inherited frombekerven
- English todaybecarve
From Middle English bekerven, bikeorven, from Old English beċeorfan (“to becarve, cut off, separate, cut or pare away, deprive a person of something by cutting, amputate, behead”), equivalent to be- + carve. Cognate with Old Frisian bikerva (“to amputate”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.