to cut off the limbs or members from something; to dismember or divide into parts.
From Old French 'desmembrer,' from Latin 'demembrare' (de- + membrare, to limb). This French form shows the evolution from Latin through Romance languages.
This is the French cousin of 'dismember,' and it was a legal term in medieval courts describing both physical and political punishment — a word as brutal as its meaning.
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