What is an ax? This word, denoting a weighty metal tool on a wooden handle, is probably known to everyone. In villages, axes are used for chopping firewood, rough processing of logs intended for the construction of housing or utility rooms. Axes are necessary for hunters, tourists, geologists, lumberjacks, carpenters and joiners.
An ax is not only an instrument of professions whose labor is associated with wood processing. For example, slaughterhouse workers use axes to cut carcasses of slaughtered farm animals. City residents are familiar with small kitchen hatchets, which are convenient to divide into pieces poultry, pork or lamb ribs.
Entertaining etymology
Where did the word "ax" come from in Russian? According to linguists, this noun is a derivative of the verb “chop” (or “melt”), which once had the meaning of “chopping”, “punching”, “chopping”. Over time, the soft vowel in the first syllable changed to "o" and the tool for "grabbing" turned into an "ax".
This word can also be found in Polish and in Romanian. A curious fact: modern researchers of the customs of the aborigines of Papua New Guinea have found that the Papuans pronounce the name of any piercing-cutting tool as "chapor". It turned out that the Russian word appeared in the vocabulary of local residents thanks to N. N. Miklukho-Maklai.
Synonyms and Antonyms
Interestingly, in many Slavic languages, an “ax” is called an ax. In Ukrainian, the word sounds like “sokira,” in Belarusian, “syaker,” in Slovak, sekira, in Slovenian, sekera.
From history textbooks and works of art devoted to medieval life, we know that the ax is an ax with a wide semicircular blade that was used as a cold weapon in military operations. The sharply sharpened and heavy poleax was capable of chopping metal armor, thereby inflicting a mortal injury to an enemy warrior.
In addition to the "poleax", there are other synonyms, for example: cleaver, pots, Balta, berdysh. But the antonyms for the word "ax" is much more difficult to choose. But still try to cope with this task. By and large, an ax is not so much an assembled tool as its metal part. A wooden hilt is the opposite of a full-fledged tool. Thus, the antonym of “ax” with some stretch can be called “ax”, that is, a shaft, a handle on which a blade is mounted, forged or cast from durable metal.
Parsing a word by composition
Despite the fact that this noun is formed from the verb "to squeeze (melt)", in modern Russian it is a completely independent common noun for the masculine gender, 2nd declension. When changing by cases, the endings are attached to the root “ax”:
- in the singular "-a", "-y", "-th", "-e";
- in the plural “s”, “s”, “s”, “s”, “s”.
As can be seen from this plate, it is not at all difficult to analyze the word “ax” in terms of composition and decline it in cases.
Persistent expressions
In our speech, there are many phraseological units in which this word is firmly established. Here are some examples.
When the room is too stuffy or too smokey, they say: "Though the ax hang." Here, it is understood that the air is so dense that a heavy object can be held by a canopy without additional support.
Looking at a man who can’t swim, people grin: “Well, just like an ax!” The comparison is quite successful, since a weighty piece of iron will instantly drown, it is worth throwing it into a vessel with water, a river or a lake.
About any product that has an unaesthetic appearance, they say: "Clumsy work!" It is believed that with this tool you can perform only rough processing of wood, for example, remove the bark from logs. Although in the old days real masterpieces of wooden architecture, household utensils, furniture and even children's toys came out from under the ax of joiners and carpenters. The tool replaced the masters with a hammer, a planer, a chisel, and a chisel.
Echoes of folk epics
The definition and meaning of the word “ax” is not always peaceful. From ancient times, many peoples, this item was a military weapon. We already mentioned the medieval poleaxes used both in Russia and in other countries of Europe and Asia.
The North American Indians had their own kind of ax - this is a tomahawk. Thanks to the customs adopted in some Indian tribes, a common cultural symbol appeared, sounding like "bury the ax of war." In fact, the tomahawks were not hiding in the ground during armistice with enemies, but in this expression the idea was that the period of hostilities was over.
The Zulus (one of the warlike peoples of South Africa) very strictly observed the moral principles and norms of the family. But after the battle with the enemy tribes, the soldiers were allowed without preliminary wedding ceremonies to enter into contact with any of the girls who liked them. The custom, called "wipe the ax", implied that in this way a man removes the sin of bloodshed.
Russian folklore
Another well-known expression is “porridge from an ax”. It means that some dish is made from improvised ingredients. In other words, from those products that were found in the house at one time or another. Phraseologism was born thanks to a Russian folk tale about a resourceful soldier and a greedy mistress. Having settled on a billeting in one of the village houses, the warrior hoped not only for an overnight stay, but also for a delicious dinner.
However, the unfriendly woman was in no hurry to feed the guest. Then the soldier asked for permission to weld his ax. Trying boiling water from the cast iron in which the ax was lying, the guest asked the hostess for a pinch of salt, then a handful of cereal, or a piece of butter, in order to improve the taste of the dish, he said. And the woman herself was wondering what could happen from an ordinary ax, albeit a boiled one. Here she was at the request of the sly and issued the necessary products. As a result, porridge was a success. The soldier ate himself plenty, and treated the hostess.
A bit of ax history
The most ancient prototype of this tool can be considered an acute-angled fragment of stone, which was used as a tool by primitive man. Subsequently, people learned to attach a wooden handle to a stone blade, connecting parts of an ax with each other with animal veins or leather ribbons. Scientists suggest that such an instrument appeared about 30 thousand years ago.
With the onset of the Copper Age, axes began to be cast from soft metal. Over time, the appearance and functionality of this item, which was necessary both in peaceful life and in war conditions, improved. The curved ax, as we see it today, made it possible to reduce recoil on impact, protecting the human hand from damage. Learning to handle this tool correctly is probably harder than describing and explaining the word. The ax in the hands of a skilled person can turn into a creative and destructive tool.
For a long time, axes were made in a makeshift way by blacksmith masters. Industrial production of this tool began in the first half of the 19th century in the United States, when the need arose for mass deforestation in order to free up land for housing and agricultural land.