What does the " cortar por lo sano" expression mean?

Question

... se cogia la sierra, se cortaba por lo sano y punto.

¡Muy buena respuesta! - Villamor, Nov 9, 2014

Answer 1

Hi korinna!

Cortar por lo sano means to take exaggerated or drastic steps to remove a problem from its root.

Example:

you have an apple trees orchard, one of them gets a pest and you decide to remove the whole tree (instead of only the affected branches) to prevent the disease to spread to others.

You have a boyfriend, and the first time you see something on him you don't like, you dump him bluntly and irreversibly, to avoid future arguments.

Very effective examples. - 0074b507, Nov 27, 2011

Answer 2

Hi korin, do we have context here? Welcome to the forum

It normally means to cut off completely.

Answer 3

Si había que arreglar una puerta, se cogía la sierra, se cortaba por lo sano y punto.

If it had been necessary to repair a door, I would have taken a saw, cut everything out, and been done with it.

Answer 4

Hello ! Thanks for the welcome

The full sentence sounds like this: Si habia que arreglar una puerta, se cogia la sierra, se cortaba por lo sano y punto.

Korinna

y punto....and that is that??? - 0074b507, Nov 27, 2011

Answer 5

Thank you for the 2 very nice explanation, specially the second one In the sentence I have provided above , what does it mean? and could someone also translate for me the whole sentence?