Etymologically
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axe

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Pronunciation

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

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