ax
EnglishEdit
PronunciationEdit
Etymology 1Edit
NounEdit
ax (plural axes)
- (American spelling) Alternative form of axe
VerbEdit
ax (third-person singular simple present axes, present participle axing, simple past and past participle axed)
- (American spelling) Alternative form of axe
Etymology 2Edit
From Middle English axen, aksen, axien, from Old English ācsian and āxian, showing metathesis from āscian. Ax/aks was common in literary works until about 1600.
VerbEdit
ax (third-person singular simple present axes, present participle axing, simple past and past participle axed)
- (now nonstandard or dialectical, especially African-American Vernacular and Bermuda) Alternative form of ask
- c. 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Knight's Tale", Canterbury Tales (Ellesmere MS), ll. 1346–52:
- 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts ]:
- 1836, Joanna Baillie, The Alienated Manor, Act 4:
- Dolly: And if so be, why did you ax me to keep you company? Housekeeper wants me below to pick raisins.
- 1879, William Barnes, “The Welshnut Tree”, in Complete Poems, volume 1, page 106:
- 1887, Gilbert and Sullivan, Ruddigore, Act 1:
- Richard Dauntless: "But, axin' your pardon, miss, might I be permitted to salute the flag I'm a-goin' to sail under?"
- 1979, Verna Mae Slone, What My Heart Wants to Tell, p. 18:
- ‘I axed him if he knowed the way and he said he had not fergitten the lay of the land.’
- 2006 Sept. 17, David Mills, "Soft Eyes", The Wire, 00:19:01:
- Wise: Your boy left here a while ago
Johnson: I ain' lookin' for him. He at his granmother's. I wanted to ax you somethin'.
- Wise: Your boy left here a while ago
- 2013 September 5, James Burton, The Bermuda Sun[1]:
- He's cool. Does triathlons dahn de Sahn. Don't drink. Ax me if I want a lift to de beach — he hurd it's a dahnce goin on dahn thurr.
Usage notesEdit
This and related forms of ask have been used since Old English and were long employed in literature and prestige dialects. Chaucer used ask, ax, and axe interchangeably. They remain in use in some rural areas of Britain and Appalachia but are now regarded as nonstandard and primarily associated with AAVE dialects in the US and MLE dialects in the UK.
ReferencesEdit
- McWhorter, John. "The 'Ax' versus 'Ask' Question", LA Times, 19 Jan. 2014.
Eastern Huasteca NahuatlEdit
AdverbEdit
ax
IcelandicEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
ax n (genitive singular ax, nominative plural öx)
- ear (of corn)
DeclensionEdit
Jamaican CreoleEdit
VerbEdit
ax
- Alternative spelling of aks.
- 2006, Amina Blackwood-Meeks, “Aiming at your dreams”, in The Jamaica Gleaner[2]:
- “Well she sey one a de man dem come right up to har car window an show har fe him sign wid him finga, order har outa de plaza like sey it was him personal yaad an ax har if she tink sey chu hooman a go tun Prime Minista she can jus come park which part she have a mind. […] ”
- So she said one of the men walked right up to her car window and pointed at his sign with his finger and ordered her to leave the plaza as if it were his own home. He asked her if she thought that the fact that a woman was going to become Prime Minister that she could just park anywhere she wanted to. […]
Middle EnglishEdit
Etymology 1Edit
From Old English æx, æcs, from Proto-West Germanic *akusi.
Alternative formsEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
ax (plural axes)
DescendantsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- “ax(e, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-24.
Etymology 2Edit
From Old English eax, from Proto-Germanic *ahsu.
Alternative formsEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
ax (plural axes)
Derived termsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- “ax(e, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-24.
Northern KurdishEdit
EtymologyEdit
Akin to Persian خاک (xâk, “earth, soil, dust”). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eHs- (“to be dry”).
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
ax f (Arabic spelling ئاخ)
DeclensionEdit
Derived termsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- Chyet, Michael L. (2003), “ax”, in Kurdish–English Dictionary, with selected etymologies by Martin Schwartz, New Haven and London: Yale University Press
Old FrenchEdit
ContractionEdit
ax
Old NorseEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Proto-Germanic *ahsą, from *ahaz (“ear (of grain)”).
NounEdit
- ear (of corn)
DeclensionEdit
DescendantsEdit
ReferencesEdit
“ax”, in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press
RomanianEdit
EtymologyEdit
From French axe, from Latin axis.
NounEdit
ax n (plural axe)
DeclensionEdit
SwedishEdit
EtymologyEdit
NounEdit
ax n
- an ear (fruiting body of a grain plant)
DeclensionEdit
Declension of ax | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | |||
Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |
Nominative | ax | axet | ax | axen |
Genitive | ax | axets | ax | axens |