kaputol

Kaputol is a Tagalog term that literally means "cutoff" or "break." It is commonly used to describe a sudden interruption, discontinuity, or termination of a sequence, service, or relationship. The word is derived from the root kaputol, which is formed by the prefix ka- and the root puhol, meaning "to sever" or "to cut."

In everyday speech, kaputol is often applied to situations such as interruptions in a telephone call, the abrupt cessation of a television program, or the termination of a contractual agreement. It can also refer to more abstract discontinuities, for example a gap in a narrative or an unexpected pause in a process. While the sense of finality or separation is inherent in the word, it is not necessarily negative; kaputol can simply indicate a change in status rather than a failure.

Kaputol also appears in legal and bureaucratic contexts to indicate the ending of a statutory period or the expiration of a right. For instance, a "kaputol ng kontrata" refers to the contract termination clause that specifies when the agreement ceases to be effective. In business, the term Kaputol ng serbisyo is used when a company discontinues a particular product line or service offering.

The term has intuitive parallels in other Austronesian languages. It appears in various dialects of Visayan languages and can be found in the literature of early Philippine grammar descriptions. Overall, kaputol remains a flexible lexical item that captures both physical and metaphorical notions of breaking a continuous sequence.