首 when fired from a job: etymology?


First question ever here. :D

So, I hear a lot in media, when someone is fired from a job, normally they
refer to 首 as being fired, or firing someone, and might sometimes make the
gesture of getting their head cut off with their hands.

What is the etymology behind that? I am not super familiar with history, but
was it that if you were discharged from your position it'd be done by a
beheading? Or what is the background for why 首 as "head" or "neck" came to
also mean "dismissal from a job or post"?




It bears noting that this kind of expression is not limited to Japanese. Have
you never heard the phrase _"heads will roll"_ in English, in reference to
people likely to lose their jobs due to some scandal or other? It is not a far
stretch to make the analogy of losing one's head for losing one's livelihood.

### Additional detail

Shogakukan's 国語大辞典 and the Daijirin dictionary both give similar sense
details. From Shogakukan:

> **5** （首を切られるの意から）
> ①関係が断たれること。縁が切れること。＊洒・青楼真廓誌‐二「とてもこんどはおさまらねへ此ものまへは首だろう」②職を失うこと。失職。「くびになる」

Daijirin's is visible [here](http://www.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%8F%E3%81%B3)
as sense 6, giving essentially the same information.

Both dictionary entries essentially trace the meaning from "to lose one's
head" to "to lose one's livelihood".




It bears noting that this kind of expression is not limited to Japanese. Have
you never heard the phrase _"heads will roll"_ in English, in reference to
people likely to lose their jobs due to some scandal or other? It is not a far
stretch to make the analogy of losing one's head for losing one's livelihood.

### Additional detail

Shogakukan's 国語大辞典 and the Daijirin dictionary both give similar sense
details. From Shogakukan:

> **5** （首を切られるの意から）
> ①関係が断たれること。縁が切れること。＊洒・青楼真廓誌‐二「とてもこんどはおさまらねへ此ものまへは首だろう」②職を失うこと。失職。「くびになる」

Daijirin's is visible [here](http://www.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%8F%E3%81%B3)
as sense 6, giving essentially the same information.

Both dictionary entries essentially trace the meaning from "to lose one's
head" to "to lose one's livelihood".

