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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: “to cut the flesh”
- San Miguel El Grande Mixtec, Navajo: “to cut around”
- Javanese: “to clip-away”
- Uab Meto: “to pinch and cut” (usually shortened to “to cut”)
- North Alaskan Inupiatun, Western Highland Purepecha: “to put the mark”
- Tetelcingo Nahuatl: “to 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: “to 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 bodies” (Source: Newari Back Translation)