Ax
/æks/noun
A tool with a heavy bladed head used for chopping or splitting wood.
Did you know?English axe and Latin ascia are historically related through a very old Indo-European cutting-root, showing how one of humanity’s most brutal tools kept its name across millennia.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*h₂eḱ-
“to be sharp, pointed”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*akusō
“a cutting tool, axe”
Old English
OE
æx
“an axe”
Middle English
ME
ax
“an axe”
Modern English
English
ax
“a tool with a bladed head for chopping or splitting”