beheadment

From behead +‎ -ment.

Word game sense attested since 1888.^[1]

beheadment (uncountable)

1. In word games, the ability to form words by removing the initial letter.

   Antonym: curtailment

   • 1981, Darryl Francis, Puzzles and Teasers for Everyone‎^[2]:

     However, the ordinary beheadment, as this phenomenon is called, is so widespread that it creates little interest. There are beheadments, though, which do have some sort of distinction. For instance, both the words concerned may have approximately the same meaning. Thus, ALONE and LONE both mean ‘solitary’.

   • 2003, Tony Augarde, The Oxford Guide to Word Games‎^[3]:

     A famous story about a beheadment concerns a university professor who put up a notice that he ‘would meet his classes tomorrow’. Some joker beheaded ‘classes’ and made it into ‘lasses’, but the professor then got his own back by deleting the ‘I’.

   • 2013, Corinne Gediman, X-Train Your Brain. Level 3: Increasing stamina‎^[4]:

     If you came up with bring and its beheadment, ring, you'd be right. Beheadments don't always rhyme, and sometimes one word is capitalized and the other is not, but the original word and its beheaded version will always fit into a sensible sentence.

2. Synonym of beheading.
   • 1876, Chetham Society. cn, Chetham miscellanies‎^[5]:

     The chairs in this room are covered with tapestry work, said to be portions of the cloak worn by King Charles at the time of his beheadment.

   • 1917, American Antiquarian Society, Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society‎^[6]:

     […] the execution by beheadment taking place almost immediately.

   • 1998, Dalkey, Kara, 1953-, Bhagavati‎^[7]:

     Some say the leaves show scarlet blotches upon the day ofthe year when Salome, it is said, demanded St. John’s beheadment.