Achsel

German

Etymology

From Old High German ahsala, ahsla, from Proto-Germanic *ahslō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱs- (“axis”). Cognate with Old Norse ǫxl (“shoulder”) and ǫxull (“axle”) (whence Danish aksel, Icelandic öxl), English axle. Also cognate with Latin āxilla (“shoulder joint”), Sanskrit अक्ष (ákṣa, “axle”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈaksəl/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

Achsel f (genitive Achsel, plural Achseln, diminutive Ächselchen n or Achselchen n)

1. armpit, axilla (cavity under the shoulder)

   Er rasiert sich die Achseln.

   He shaves his armpits.

   Er hat Haarstoppeln in den Achseln.

   He has stubbles of hair in his armpits.

2. shoulder; shoulder joint (see usage notes below)

   Er zuckte mit den Achseln.

   He shrugged his shoulders.

   Er hat Haarstoppeln unter den Achseln.

   He has stubbles of hair under his arms.

Usage notes

• The diminutive forms are both very rare and hardly attestable.
• The normal term for “shoulder” is Schulter. The word Achsel is overall less common in this sense; it usually specifies the outer parts of the shoulders, i.e. what is around the shoulder joint.

Declension

Declension of Achsel [feminine]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	eine	die	Achsel	die	Achseln
genitive	einer	der	Achsel	der	Achseln
dative	einer	der	Achsel	den	Achseln
accusative	eine	die	Achsel	die	Achseln

Synonyms

• (armpit): Achselhöhle (more formal)
• (shoulder): Schulter, Schultergelenk

Related terms

• Achselband, Achselklappe, Achselschnur, Achselstück

Further reading

• “Achsel” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Achsel” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “Achsel” in Duden online
• Achsel on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de
• Friedrich Kluge (1883) “Achsel”, in John Francis Davis, transl., Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, published 1891