axis

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈæksɪs/ (UK); /ˈæksɪs/, /ˈæksəs/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin axis (“axle, pivot; axis of the earth or sky”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Indo-European *aks-, axis,^[3][2] source also of Old English eax, axle, German Achse, Greek ἄξων (áxōn, “axle”) and Sanskrit अक्ष (ákṣa, “axle”).^[2][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A straight line, the axis of a body: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus;^[2] the imaginary line about which the earth rotates, the 1540s (1549).^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

The geometrical line about which a figure revolves is from 1571,^[6] and the general sense, a straight line about which parts are arranged, from the 1660s.^[3] The axle of a wheel is from before 1619,^[6] and the second cervical vertebra from 1694.^[6] The figurative sense, a central prop of a system, is from before 1616.^[6] The Axis, the alliance of Germany and Italy and later Japan in the Second World War, is from 1936, from the idea of a pivot around which countries revolved.^[6][4][7]

Timeline

• before 1398 – an axis.^[2]
• 1549 – the earth's axis.^[6]
• 1571 – a geometrical axis.^[6]
• 1694 – a vertebra.^[6]
• 1936 – the Axis powers.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A real or imaginary straight line about which a body rotates.
2. A line about which an object or figure is symmetrical, or a reference line in a graph or coordinate system.
3. (anatomy) The second vertebra of the neck.
4. (the Axis) The alliance of Germany, Italy and Japan in the Second World War.

Word family

• interaxis
• x-axis
• y-axis
• z-axis
• axi-
• axis of symmetry
• imaginary axis
• major axis

Related words

• axial
• axile
• axle
• axon

Usage notes

The axis deer, or chital, of India is a different word, from a Latin name of an Indian animal mentioned by Pliny.^[8][9][10]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press