Why “behew” is a great word
BEHEW — [Verb] To adorn or embellish something thoroughly by cutting or hewing. From Middle English behewen, from Old English behēawan ("to cut, chip, chop, beat, cut off from, deprive of"), equivalent to be- (thoroughly, about) + hew (to strike, cut). First attested around 1314. Unlike "hew," a blunt act of cutting down, or "embellish," a superficial addition of ornament, to behew is to achieve adornment through the deliberate, foundational subtraction of material. It is the chisel coaxing a foliate scroll from limestone, the knife scoring knotwork into a chair-back, the flaking that reveals a leaf-shaped blade from flint—a covenant of labor where the truest decoration is not applied, but carved from within.