":::::::I'll save you the trip to the library.  The OED defines circumcision as ""The act of circumcising; [. . .]"" and circumcise as ""To cut off the foreskin or prepuce of (males); chiefly as a religious rite of Jews and Muslims.  Also in Surgery.  (Also to perform an analogous operation on females). [de-emphasis original]""  Those are the first definitions, at least.  Make of it what you will.  @ 
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