retrenchment

Etymology

Probably partly from both of the following: * Middle French retrenchement, retranchement (“removal of a portion from a larger whole; reduction of expenses”) (modern French retranchement (“deduction, subtraction”)), from retrancher, retranchier (“to get rid of, remove completely; to remove a portion from a larger whole; to reduce expenses; to deprive (oneself) of”) [and other forms] + -ment (suffix forming nouns usually of an action or a state resulting from an action). Retrancher and retranchier are derived from Old French re- (prefix meaning ‘again, once more’) + tranchier, trenchier (“to cut”) [and other forms] (modern French trancher (“to slice”)); the further etymology is uncertain, but one possibility is that the Old French words are from Latin truncāre, the present active infinitive of truncō (“to mutilate by cutting off pieces; to truncate”), from truncus (“tree trunk; piece cut off”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ- (“to carve; to cut off, trim”). * retrench (“to cut down, reduce; to reduce expenses; to make (an employee) redundant”) + -ment. Retrench is derived from Middle French retrancher, retranchier: see above.