axe

Etymology

It continues inherited from Middle English ax and ex,^[2] inherited from Old English æx,^[3][4][5] earlier æces and, in Northumbrian, acas.^[3][6] The OED explains the two-syllable forms as Anglian and the one-syllable æx as West Saxon.^[7] It is cognate with Old Frisian axa, Old Saxon akus, Old High German acchus (modern Axt, with an added final consonant), Dutch aaks, Old Norse øx and Gothic 𐌰𐌵𐌹𐌶𐌴𐌹 (aqizi),^[7][3][4][6] from Proto-Germanic *akwisī,^[1] and Hoad reconstructs two stem forms.^[4] The further origin is uncertain and disputed.^[7] A link with Ancient Greek ἀξίνη (axínē, “axe”) and Latin ascia (“axe, mason's trowel”) is often proposed,^[7][8] and Etymonline traces all of them to Proto-Indo-European *agw(e)si- (“axe”);^[3] Barnhart instead separates the Latin and Greek words, which he derives from *aksī.^[6] The OED finds these explanations formally difficult and not compatible with each other, and suggests that a word for such an important tool may have passed between languages by borrowing, perhaps from a non-Indo-European language.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A chopping tool with a squarish metal head set at right angles on a wooden handle: early Old English, in King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care.^[7] Barnhart dates æces to before 830, in the Vespasian Psalter.^[6] The battle-axe and the executioner's axe are also Old English senses.^[7][9]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined an axe as a metal head with a sharp edge fixed in a handle, to cut with.^[10] Several proverbial phrases grew up around the tool: to hang up one's axe, to stop work or retire, is found from c. 1275 in The Owl and the Nightingale,^[7] and to send the axe after the helve, to throw away what remains after a great loss, from 1546.^[7] To have an axe to grind, a private aim, is originally American (1810).^[7] Etymonline traces it to an essay of 1810 by Charles Miner, in which a man flatters a boy into turning the grindstone for him, and notes that it was long misattributed to Benjamin Franklin,^[3] as Weekley did.^[11] The figurative axe, the drastic cutting of spending or staff, is recorded from 1886,^[7] and Etymonline and Cresswell date it to 1922,^[3][12] probably from the headsman's axe.^[3] The verb began as a bricklayer's term, to trim a brick with an axe (1700 in the OED, the 1670s in Etymonline),^[7][3] and came to mean to cut back or abolish in 1923,^[7] with slang axed, dismissed, from 1922.^[13] In jazz from 1955 an axe was a musical instrument, at first a saxophone, and in rock slang from 1967 a guitar.^[7][3][12]

Timeline

• early Old English – a chopping tool; an executioner's axe.^[7]
• Old English – a battle-axe.^[7]
• c. 1275 – to hang up one's axe.^[7]
• 1546 – to send the axe after the helve.^[7]
• 1700 – verb, to trim a brick with an axe.^[7]
• 1810 – to have an axe to grind (US).^[7][3]
• 1837 – verb, to strike with an axe.^[7]
• 1851 – (archaeology) a prehistoric stone axe.^[7]
• 1886 – the axe, drastic cutting of spending or staff.^[7]
• 1923 – verb, to cut back or abolish.^[7]
• 1955 – (jazz slang) a musical instrument; a guitar from 1967.^[7][3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A tool with a heavy, sharp-edged metal blade fixed to a long handle, used for felling trees and splitting wood.
2. A broad-bladed axe used as a weapon; a battle-axe.
3. the axe (informal): dismissal from a job, or a sharp cut in spending or services: Two hundred posts face the axe.
4. (slang) A musical instrument, especially a guitar or formerly a saxophone.
5. an axe to grind: a private motive, grievance or pet subject.

Verb

1. To cut, shape or strike with an axe.
2. (informal) To dismiss staff, or to cut back sharply or abolish a service, a plan or a budget.

Word family

• poleaxe

Related words

• hatchet
• pickaxe
• adze

Usage notes

The American spelling is ax.^[8][14] Ayto notes that the British axe has no historical justification: it first appeared in the late 14th century, and the first edition of the OED (1885) still made ax the main form.^[8][3] A separate, obsolete axe (1551–1796), from French, was a byform of axis.^[7][9] Weekley points out that curtle-axe and pickaxe are unrelated to it.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins