tomahawk

Etymology

It is borrowed from Powhatan tamahaac (“a hatchet, what is used in cutting”),^[2][3][4][5] also recorded as tamohake and tomahack and pronounced /təmahaːk/;^[6] Barnhart and Etymonline think the language was probably Powhatan.^[5][2] The OED analyses the word as a verb meaning "to chop off" with a suffix forming nouns of instrument,^[6] and Dictionary.com as Proto-Algonquian *temah- (“to cut off”) and *-akan- (“instrument for”);^[7] Etymonline derives it from tamaham (“he cuts”).^[2] The OED compares Munsee tŭmakíikan (“axe”) and Penobscot təmáhikan (“axe”),^[6] and Etymonline lists Mohegan-Pequot tummahegan and Mi'kmaq tumeegun.^[2] Spellings beginning “tommy-” reflect a colloquial pronunciation, helped by the forename “Tommy”,^[6] and in the 18th century the word was sometimes reshaped as tom-axe.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A stone-headed weapon like a hatchet or small axe, used by Indigenous peoples of North America in fighting and hunting and as a tool: about 1612, in W. Strachey's Historie of Travell into Virginia,^[6][8] as tamahaac and tomahack in Barnhart, who dates it 1612 and the spelling Tomahawke 1648.^[5][9]

Semantic evolution

From 1681 the word was applied to similar weapons of other peoples,^[6] and after 1761 also to a short naval axe with a spike, used for boarding and cutting ropes.^[6] In Australia and New Zealand it became the ordinary word for a hatchet: Morris wrote in 1898 that there hatchet had practically disappeared,^[10][6] and it was also used of the stone axes of Aboriginal Australians.^[10][8] The verb, to strike or kill with a tomahawk, is recorded from 1711,^[6][5] and gained the figurative senses "to thwart" (1773) and "to attack savagely in speech or writing" (1815);^[6] Australian and New Zealand shearers used it from 1859 for cutting a sheep by rough shearing.^[6][11] The phrases bury the tomahawk, to make peace, and take up the tomahawk, to go to war, are recorded from 1775.^[6][12] Later uses include a policeman's truncheon in slang (1909),^[11] the Tomahawk cruise missile (1976)^[6] and a rib-eye steak with a long bone (2006).^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1612 – a war axe of Indigenous peoples of North America, as tamahaac.^[6][5][8]
• 1648 – the spelling Tomahawke.^[5]
• 1681 – a similar weapon of other peoples.^[6]
• 1711 – verb, to strike, cut or kill with a tomahawk.^[6][5] Etymonline dates the verb to 1755, and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to about 1650.^[2][8]
• 1761 – a short naval boarding axe.^[6]
• 1773 – verb, to thwart or obstruct.^[6]
• 1775 – bury the tomahawk, to make peace.^[6] take up the tomahawk, to declare war.^[6]
• 1779 – figurative, a means of attacking someone.^[6]
• 1803 – in Australia and New Zealand, a hatchet.^[6]
• 1815 – verb, to criticize savagely.^[6]
• 1859 – verb, to shear a sheep roughly, cutting it.^[6][11]
• 1909 – slang, a policeman's truncheon.^[11]
• 1976 – the Tomahawk cruise missile.^[6]
• 2006 – a rib-eye steak with a long rib bone.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A light axe with a stone or, later, iron head, used by Native Americans as a weapon, thrown or held in the hand, and as a tool.^[4][8][6]
2. In Australia and New Zealand, a hatchet: He split the kindling with a tomahawk.^[4][6][13]
3. The stone hatchet of the Aboriginal Australians.^[8][10]
4. Tomahawk: a long-range subsonic cruise missile used by the US Navy and the Royal Navy.^[6]
5. A rib-eye steak cut with a long rib bone attached.^[6]
6. bury the tomahawk: to stop fighting and make peace.^[6][12]

Verb

1. To strike, cut or kill with a tomahawk.^[8][6][13]
2. To criticize or attack savagely: The critics tomahawked her first novel.^[8][6]
3. In Australia and New Zealand, to cut a sheep in shearing, or to shear it roughly.^{[8][6][11][13]}
4. Chiefly in North America, to thwart a person or stop an action.^[6]
5. In baseball, to hit a high-pitched ball with a high chopping swing.^[6]

Word family

• tomahawker

Related words

• tom-axe

Usage notes

In English dialects, Wright recorded tomahawk for local tools: a combined pick and hammer in West Yorkshire collieries, a long-handled hoe for digging brick clay in Sussex, a dung-fork in Shropshire, a hoe-like tool in Herefordshire and a potato hacker in Wiltshire.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ 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 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c Morris, Edward E. (1898), Austral English: A Dictionary of Australasian Words, Phrases and Usages, London: Macmillan
11. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c The Macquarie Dictionary (2013), 6th ed., Sydney: Macquarie Dictionary Publishers
14. ^ 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)