Ax

n. [O. Eng. axe, A-S. eax, æx, acas, Icel. öx, öxi, Sw. yxe, Dan. ökse, O-S. acus, O. H. Ger. achus, akis, Goth. agizi, D. akse, N. H. Ger. axt, Gr. ἀξίνη, Lat. ascia.] An instrument, usually of iron, with a steel edge or blade, for hewing timber, chopping wood, &c. It consists of a head with an arching edge, and a wooden helve or handle. The broad-ax, or carpenter’s ax, is an ax for hewing timber, made heavier than the chopping-ax, and with a broader and thinner blade and a shorter handle. The ancient battle-ax had sometimes a double edge.

☞ This word was originally spelt with e, axe; and so also was nearly every corresponding word of one syllable; as, flare, tare, ware, size, mire, pixe, oxe, fluxe, &c. This superfluous e is now dropped; so that, in more than a hundred words ending in x, no one thinks of retaining the e, except in axe. Analogy, therefore, requires its exclusion here; and in America ax is a very common spelling, though in England axe is still used almost exclusively.