Why "Beheaded" and not "Deheaded?"?

Hmmmm. Bedeck, becalm, befog, belabor… They are all about adding.

Decapitate is removing.

I think you’re on to something.

I was thinking about this sort of formation just last week and made a little list of examples, and now I can neither remember the list nor remember where I put it. Tracking too many other things just now, I guess.

The gist of it was, though, recognizing words where the verb means to put on the thing, whatever it is, without any prefix (for example, to coat something with wax is to put on a coat of wax, to paint something is to apply paint, to water something is to pour water on), and others where the verb means to take it off (to peel an orange is to take off the peel, to skin a rabbit is to remove the skin, to top a tree is to cut off the top, etc.). In that context I thought of “behead” as perhaps a special variant of “to head,” which could have meant to take the head off. (This was nothing but a guess, by the way.)

I did check and see that the prefix “be-” can sometimes be privative, which means that it’s about the absence or loss of something (”-less” is a privative suffix, as in “clueless” and “heartless”), but I couldn’t think of other examples.

I have a dictionary of etymology that could probably tell me all about this, but right now I can’t get at it.

I believe that most “be-” verbs are not so much about adding something as they are about making a verb out of something that isn’t a verb otherwise.

This is not to say that “deheaded” wouldn’t have made sense; but the “be-” prefix probably goes back into some old Germanic roots instead of the Latin that gave us “de-” (along with the “capit-” stem).

Custom. There’s also unheaded, and decapitated, even decollated… I’m sure you’re not the first to use deheaded, but it never really caught on.

After reading everyone’s answers above, and watching Game of Thrones, I wonder if the word evolved from “bring me his head.” Another thought is that heads were put up as a souvenir of the decapitation either on a stick or shelf for a time. In that case you are adding to the collection.

Another that always seemed odd to me was the word pitted means the pit was removed.

Be- was sometimes used in old English to mean off. So we have beshear – to shear off, bedeal – to deprive. In the 1000 or so years since be- has developed just to confuse us all.

What’s wrong with ‘decapitated’?

@elbanditoroso It doesn’t sound like anyone is saying anything is wrong with decapitated; it’s just that beheaded is also acceptable usage and the OP is questioning why the word is formed the way it is.

I suspect that @Lightlyseared and @Jeruba have the best ideas.

A quick check of the OED online found that the derivation is from the Old English privative prefix.

Hope this link works.

Hmmmm. Besmirch, bewitch, bewilder, behoove… GQ.
Hahahaha. I am bewildered. I think it behooves us all to find out, before I get bebothered, betwixt thinking about this and other conundrums!

@janbb Takes me to the login screen for Brookdale.

@marinelife Dang. From here, the link is to the OED definition with usages from Old and Middle English. Let me see if I can figure out another way to link it. It is the answer.

Here’s the OED entry with the etymology cut and pasted:

behead, v.

Pronunciation:
behead#_gb_1.mp3 /bɪˈhɛd/
Forms: OE behéafdi-an, ME behæfdien, ME bihaued-en, ME biheafdin, bihafdi, ME bihefden, ME… (Show More)

Frequency (in current use):

Etymology: Old English behéafdi-an , < be- prefix 3 (with privative force) + héafod head n.1… (Show More)

Thesaurus »

1. trans. To deprive (a man or animal) of the head, to decapitate; to kill by cutting off the head.

c1000 West Saxon Gospels: Matt. (Corpus Cambr.) xiv. 10 He asende þa and beheafdode Iohannem.

c1160 Hatton G. Matt. xiv. 10 behæfdede.

a1225 Juliana 40 To bihefden [v.r. beheafdin] pawel.

c1275 (▸?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) l. 13124 Þat heo us wulle bihafdi.

1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) Matt. xiv. 10 He sente, and bihedide [v.r. byheuedede] Joon in the prisoun.

a1450 (▸c1410) H. Lovelich Hist. Holy Grail xlvii. l. 155 Beheveded On Aftyr Anothir.

1474 Caxton tr. Game & Playe of Chesse (1883) ii. iv. 48 Other sayd that they shold be beheedid.

a1535 T. More Hist. Richard III in Wks. (1557) 54/1 To bee byhedded at Pountfreit.

a1616 Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 (1623) iv. vii. 93 Take him away and behead him.

1781 Gibbon Decline & Fall II. xlvi. 719 A great number of the captives were beheaded.

1873 H. Spencer Study Sociol. vii. 156 We beheaded 2000 fellahs, throwing their headless corpses into the Nile.

fig.
1593 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie iv. xiv. 209 To repaire the decayes thereof by beheading superstition.

1726 M. Henry Wks. II. 370 It adds to our grief to see a family beheaded.

Thanks, @janbb. To restate my last point, we don’t usually see a Latin prefix + a Germanic verb as much as we see Latin + Latin or Germanic + Germanic (or Greek + Greek, etc.). “Behead” is Germanic + Germanic. “Decapitate” is Latin + Latin.

“be-” is also privative in “bereave” and Old English “belandian” deprive of one’s land and “beniman” to take away.