since you can kill by cutting, it's hard to to disentangle the killing from the mere cutting. An anecdote: in Italy you can often see the "scissors" hand gestu

since you can kill by cutting, it's hard to to disentangle the killing from the mere cutting. An anecdote: in Italy you can often see the "scissors" hand gestures when the interlocutor wants you to get to the point. I don't know how ancient people came up with the word, but the killing metaphor seems a bit of a stretch; perhaps cutting one's tongue would be enough!