axe

• n. 斧
• vt. 削减；用斧砍
• n. (Axe)人名；(瑞典)阿克塞；(英)阿克斯

词源略。

axe

axe: [OE] Relatives of the word axe are widespread throughout the Indo-European languages, from German axt and Dutch aaks to Latin ascia and Greek axínē. These point back to a hypothetical Indo-European *agwesī or *akusī, which denoted some sort of cutting or hewing tool. The Old English form was æx, and there is actually no historical justification for the modern British spelling axe, which first appeared in the late 14th century; as late as 1885 the Oxford English Dictionary made ax its main form, and it remains so in the USA.

axe (n.)

Old English æces (Northumbrian acas) "axe, pickaxe, hatchet," later æx, from Proto-Germanic *akusjo (cognates: Old Saxon accus, Old Norse ex, Old Frisian axe, German Axt, Gothic aqizi), from PIE *agw(e)si- (cognates: Greek axine, Latin ascia).

The spelling ax is better on every ground, of etymology, phonology, and analogy, than axe, which became prevalent during the 19th century; but it is now disused in Britain. [OED]

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The spelling ax, though "better on every ground, of etymology, phonology, & analogy" (OED), is so strange to 20th-c. eyes that it suggests pedantry & is unlikely to be restored. [Fowler]

Meaning "musical instrument" is 1955, originally jazz slang for the saxophone; rock slang for "guitar" dates to 1967. The axe in figurative sense of cutting of anything (expenses, workers, etc.), especially as a cost-saving measure, is from 1922, probably from the notion of the headman's literal axe (itself attested from mid-15c.). To have an axe to grind is from an 1815 essay by U.S. editor and politician Charles Miner (1780-1865) in which a man flatters a boy and gets him to do the chore of axe-grinding for him, then leaves without offering thanks or recompense. Misattributed to Benjamin Franklin in Weekley, OED print edition, and many other sources.

axe (v.)

1670s, "to shape or cut with an axe," from axe (n.). Meaning "to remove, severely reduce," usually figurative, recorded by 1922. Related: Axed; axing.

1. Then the woodcutter let his axe fly— Thwack! Everyone heard it.

然后那个伐木工脱手甩出了斧头。哐！每个人都听见了。

来自柯林斯例句

2. St Bartholomew's is one of four London hospitals facing the axe.

圣巴塞洛缪医院是伦敦4个面临关闭的医院之一。

来自柯林斯例句

3. Up to 300 workers are facing the axe at a struggling Merseyside firm.

艰苦挣扎的默西赛德公司有多达300名工人面临被解雇。

来自《权威词典》

4. He fell the tree with a dozen blows of his axe.

他十几斧头就把树砍倒了.

来自《简明英汉词典》

5. The axe is too blunt to cut down the tree.

斧头太钝,砍不倒树.

来自《简明英汉词典》