Saxe

English

Etymology

Seemingly a combination of influences: Middle English Saxe (“the Saxons”) (from Old English Seaxe), Middle French Saxe (“Saxony”), and German Sachsen (“Saxony”) and Sachse (“a Saxon”) itself, rewritten with x (compare regional German Saxen). The form Saxẽ (i.e., Saxen) is found in some Early Modern sources.

The surname is also partly from German Sachs, itself a variant of Sachse; a variant of Dutch Sas (literally “Saxon”), a cognate; and Middle English Saxe, a personal name from Old Norse Saxi, from sax (“one-edged sword”). All of these ultimately lead back to Proto-Germanic *sahsą (“dagger, knife”). Doublet of Sachs, Sax, Sas, and Sachse.

Pronunciation

• (proper noun): IPA^(key): /sæks/, /ˈsæksə/
• (common noun): IPA^(key): /sæks/

Proper noun

Saxe

1. (now only in compounds or attributively) Saxony.
   • 1572, The copie of the Proclamatioun set furth be the kingis Maiestie and his Counsall, for ane Conuentioun of the Professouris of the trew Religioun within the Realme […]‎^[1]:

     The Intentioun of the Empreour is sic, that he will put from the Impyre, the Palsgraue and Duke August of Saxe […]

   • 1669, [Gilbert Burnet], A Modest and Free Conference Betwixt a Conformist and a Non-conformist […]‎^[2], page 17:

     When Luther rose, the Duke of Saxe, being moved of God, did receive the Reformation peaceably into his principalities, without any force, and his examples was followed by other Princes and free cities […]

   • 1988, Michael A. Meyer, Response to Modernity: A History of the Reform Movement in Judaism, →ISBN, page 104:

     If Prussian policy represented the extreme of encouraging the dissolution of Judaism through inner decay, in Saxe–Weimar it was deemed best to break the bonds of tradition forcibly in order to speed up the process of amalgamation.

2. A surname from the Germanic languages.

Derived terms

• saxe blue
• Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Noun

Saxe (uncountable)

1. (photography, historical) A German albumenized paper used in photography.

Anagrams

• Seax, axes, seax, sexa-

French

Etymology

From Middle French Saxe, an apparently semi-learned form which displaced Old French Saisunie, Sessoigne, etc., from Latin Saxōnia, perhaps after Medieval Latin Saxia or influenced by German Sachsen itself. Compare Middle French Saxone (“Saxony”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /saks/

• Audio

  (file)

Proper noun

Saxe f

1. Saxony (a state of Germany)

Anagrams

• axes