The Hebrew and Greek terms that are translated as “circumcise” or “circumcision” in English (originally meaning of English term: “to cut around”) are (back-) translated in various ways:
- Chimborazo Highland Quichua: “cut the flesh”
- San Miguel El Grande Mixtec, Navajo: “cut around”
- Javanese: “clip-away”
- Uab Meto: “pinch and cut” (usually shortened to “cut”)
- North Alaskan Inupiatun, Western Highland Purepecha: “put the mark”
- Tetelcingo Nahuatl: “put the mark in the body showing that they belong to God” (or: “that they have a covenant with God”)
- Indonesian: disunat — “undergo sunat” (sunat is derived from Arabic “sunnah (سنة)” — “(religious) way (of life)”)
- Ekari: “cut the end of the member for which one fears shame” (in Gen. 17:10) (but typically: “the cutting custom”) (source for this and above: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
- Hiri Motu: “cut the skin” (source: Deibler / Taylor 1977, p. 1079)
- Garifuna: “cut off part of that which covers where one urinates”
- Bribri: “cut the soft” (source for this and the one above: Ronald Ross)
- Amele: deweg cagu qoc — “cut the body” (source: John Roberts)
- Eastern Highland Otomi: “cut the flesh of the sons like Moses taught” (source: Ronald D. Olson in Notes on Translation January, 1968, p. 15ff.)
- Newari: “put the sign in one’s body” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
- Central Mazahua: “sign in his flesh”
- Hopi: “being cut in a circle in his body” (source for this and above: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)
- Mandarin Chinese: gēlǐ (割礼 / 割禮) or “rite of cutting” (Protestant); gēsǔn (割损 / 割損) or “cut + loss” (Catholic) (Source: Zetzsche)
- Tibetan: mdun lpags gcod (མདུན་ལྤགས་གཅོད།), lit. “fore + skin + cut” (source: gSungrab website )
- Kutu: “enter the cloth (=undergarments)” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Circumcision .