The story
- Middle English · inherited fromforcleven“to cut to pieces”
- English todayforcleave
From Middle English forcleven (“to cut to pieces”), from for- (perfective prefix) + cleven (“to cleave, cut”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
forcleave
Today it means: to cut to pieces, hack, chop up. Full definition →
Middle English forcleven