axle

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English axel,^[2][3] borrowed from Old Norse ǫxull (“axis, axle”),^[3][4][5] taken from the earlier Middle English compound axeltre, axletree,^[6][7][5][8] which is from Old Norse ǫxultré, formed from ǫxull and tré (“tree, beam”).^{[6][9][8][10]} The Norse word goes back to Proto-Germanic *ahsulaz,^{[6][5][8][11]} a derivative of the Germanic word for an axle, *ahsō, from Proto-Indo-European *aks- (“axis”),^[12][8][11] which is also the source of the Latin cognate axis.^[11][12] The Norse compound replaced the native ax-tree, from Old English eax (“axle”).^[5][12][13] Etymonline sees the Middle English word as a blend of the Old English and Old Norse words,^[11] and the MED and Dictionary.com derive it from eaxl (“shoulder”),^[2][14] the source of an older axle, shoulder, used until about 1275.^[5] That word is related to Old Norse ǫxl, Old Saxon ahsla, Old High German ahsala and German Achsel (“armpit”), and to Latin axilla (“armpit”).^{[10][5][11][15]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The bar or shaft on which the wheels of a cart turn: the MED and Barnhart find the simple word in a document of 1367–68,^[2][6] and the compound axeltre from 1290 or the early 14th century.^[6][12][2] The OED's first record of axle alone is from 1557, in the Songes & Sonettes of the Earl of Surrey and others;^[5] Ayto and Weekley say it was not used on its own until the end of the 16th century or the 17th.^[12][13]

Semantic evolution

Ayto notes that the word appeared surprisingly late, given how old axles are: Old English had eax, which survived in ax-tree until the 17th century and longer in Scotland, before the Norse axle-tree replaced it.^[12] When axle came into use on its own in the 1590s it first meant an axis, a sense since lost, and it became established for the shaft of a wheel in the early 17th century.^[12] The OED records "the imaginary line about which a planet or the heavens revolve" from 1596 to 1850, and the beam of a loom only about 1634.^[5] A figurative use, a pivot on which something turns, is recorded from before 1634.^[5] Merriam-Webster still lists "axis" as archaic, as in "the axle of the earth".^[7] In Yorkshire dialect assle was a verb, to fit a cart with an axletree.^[16]

Timeline

• 1290 – the compound axeltre, axletree.^[6]
• 1367–68 – axel, the shaft on which cart wheels turn.^[2][6]
• 1557 – the shaft passing through the centre of a wheel.^[5]
• 1596 – the axis of a planet or of the heavens (obsolete by 1850).^[5]
• before 1634 – figurative, a pivot.^[5]
• 1630s – the pin on which a wheel revolves, according to Etymonline.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bar or shaft on which a wheel or pair of wheels turns, or which turns with them: The cart's rear axle snapped under the load.^[4][7][5]
2. A shaft that carries a wheel, gear or other rotating part, as in a machine.^[5][4]
3. (archaic) An axis, such as the axis of the earth.^[7][5]

Word family

• axled
• transaxle
• wheel and axle

Related words

• axis
• axil
• axilla
• axletree
• aisle
• oxter

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b c d e f g Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
15. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
16. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)