() is a Greek word meaning 'incision.'

Classical Greek 1. The original meaning, following etymology, in classical texts means 'incision,' 'notch,' or 'groove,' (Theophrastus The Hippocratic treatises 4.8.10, and Symmachus Sm.Je.31 (48).37), whereas () means 'uncarved,' 'smooth,' (Inscriptiones Graecae IG12.372.134, cf. 373.231). The plural, 'notches,' is found in Artemidorus (1.67)Artemidorus Daldianus Onirocriticus [Artem.] ii A.D. Ed. R. Hercher, Leipzig 1864. and 'written in the incision of the rock' (), Philochorus Historicus, 4th century BCE (138).cf. μέταλλον καὶ κ. perh. a mine and a quarry-face, IG22.1582.70.

2. By extension it also came to mean an architectural 'incision', 'nook' in a theatre, in Hyperides, perhaps the same as the () or (), ( AB270.,Anecdota Graeca, Berlin. 1816 cf. Photius Lexicographus, 9th century AD). Demosthenes placed himself beneath the which suggests he may have been barred from speaking to any citizen from another phyle.Peter John Rhodes Athenian democracy 2004 "It is of course possible that each phyle occupied a fixed section of the ecclesia following the official order of the tribes, in which case Pandionis was next to Aegeis; but Demosthenes always placed himself beneath the katatome*1"

3. A later meaning is , 'profile,' according to Hesychius Lexicographus, 5th century AD. κατατομή, ἡ, A. incision, notch, groove, Thphr.HP4.8.10, Sm.Je. 31 (48).37; “ἄνευ -τομῆς” uncarved, smooth, IG12.372.134, cf. 373.231: pl., Artem.1.67. II. part of a theatre, Hyp.Dem.Fr.3: variously expld. as = ὀρχήστρα or διάζωμα, AB270, cf. Phot. 2. face of rock, “ἐπέγραψεν ἐπὶ τὴν κ. τῆς πέτρας” Philoch.138; μέταλλον καὶ κ. perh. a mine and a quarry-face, IG22.1582.70. III. = καταγραφή, profile, Hsch. IV. mutilation, opp. true circumcision, a παρονομασία in Ep.Phil.3.2. Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by. Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1940.

New Testament It is the Greek word translated 'beware of the concision,' in Philippians 3:2, KJV.Greek New Testament ; KJV text 1611 "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision." The term 'mutilation' is contrasted with "we are the circumcision ( ), which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." The context is the circumcision controversy in early Christianity.Nicholas Thomas Wright What Saint Paul really said: was Paul of Tarsus the real founder ... - 1997 p192 "When Paul coins somewhat contemptuous puns to make this point (for instance, katatome, 'mutilation', for peritome, 'circumcision', in Philippians 3:2), this is not mere angry invective. It is the equivalent of what would happen today if ."

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