Etymologically
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axis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈak.sɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈak.sis][1]

Forms

axis m (genitive axis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *aksi- (“axle”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱs-(i-) (“axle, armpit”).[2][1] Cognate with Welsh echel (“axle”), Sanskrit अक्ष (ákṣa, “axle”), Ancient Greek ἄξων (áxōn, “axle”), Lithuanian ašìs (“axle”) and Old English eax (“axle”).[2][3] De Vaan notes that the stem in ⟨-i-⟩ may not be of Indo-European date, and that āla (“wing, armpit”) and axilla (“armpit”) go back to a related Italic form; the root may be that of Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- (“to lead”).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Pacuvius,[2] who has a chariot that “runs on a swift axle with four horses”;[3] Köbler gives Cato.[4]

Semantic evolution

It is an axle or axletree, as Virgil's glowing axle that flies along, and by extension a chariot or wagon, as Propertius' chariots loaded with Caesar's spoils.[3][5][1] In machines it is an axle or spindle, as in Vitruvius, and in architecture the axis of a volute.[3]

It is the line through the earth's centre on which the universe was thought to turn, as Varro of Atax' heaven turning on its axis, the celestial north pole or pole star, as in Accius, and the vault of heaven, as Virgil's Atlas who turns the sky on his shoulder; it is also a region of the sky or clime.[3][5][1]

Church Latin glosses it “axle, axis; wheel; heavens, pole”.[6] English axis in the 1540s was the line about which a body turns.[7]

Timeline

  • 220–130 BC – Pacuvius of a chariot's axle.[3][2][4]
  • 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of the north pole.[3][4]
  • c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of axles in machines.[3][4]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of the vault of heaven.[3][4]
  • 1540s – Borrowed into English as axis.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An axle, axletree;[3][5][1][6] (by extension) a chariot, wagon.[3][5][1][6]
  2. An axle or spindle (of a machine); the axis of a volute.[3]
  3. The axis of the world.[3][5]
  4. The celestial pole; the pole star.[3][5][1][6]
  5. The vault of heaven, sky; a region of the sky, clime.[3][5][1][6]

Word family

  • axiculus
  • axungia

Usage notes

Two other words are spelled axis:[3] one, also assis, is a plank or board, compared with asser and assula;[3][8][1] Döderlein calls axēs or assēs unworked boards as they come from the saw, unlike smoothed tabulae.[9] The other, of unknown origin, is an Indian animal in Pliny the Elder, perhaps the spotted deer.[3][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper