Ax vs. axe
I was reading an article in an aviation magazine today (true story) and ran across an article with a title that mentioned an ax to grind.
First problem: The title was split on two lines and the word ax was at the end of the first line, with to grind at the beginning of the second line. Ech. It’s no fun to read a typical phrase such as this one that’s been split in two as if it’s a banana flippin’ split. Ruins the flow for the reader. Not to mention that the last word on the first line is a mere two letters long.
But I digress once again.
Second and, for the purpose of this entry, main problem: Ax was spelled ax. Two letters. It just looked wrong.
So what did I do?
(Wait for it.)
Someone ought to have an ax to grind with the room designer (photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mccready/3069366812/)
OK, don’t wait for it. You know the drill; I looked it up on Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary and — what the?! — ax is the preferred spelling! The dictionary gods must be crazy, but apparently they have deemed axe (three letters and the spelling that I grew up with, unless my memory is playing tricks on me) as the secondary spelling. The variant. The sub-par. Egads.
There you have it. I might not like ax right now, but I will after a few days of stewing. I hope that you will, too.
Happy trails!
SAK
Tags: ax, ax to grind, axe, axe to grind, Merriam-Webster
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Really…’ax’ is an American spelling, whereas ‘axe’ is rather an English spelling, if you will.
I am annoyed with many words that people misspell and mispronounce (e.g. ekcetra for et cetera and exspresso for espresso). It is almost as if an evolution of language is afoot. After all, there are words that are considered archaic or obsolete, but were a large part of the vernacular of their times. Perhaps, someday, espresso will be pronounced exspresso in Italy – naaaahhhhh. It seems that a lot of people just emulate the misspellings and mispronunciations of others; and it promulgates from there. This happens much with people from one language who mispronounce the words of another language. They do not try to find out the correct way to say it. Another example is the name of the northwestern-most county in California – Del Norte County. People mispronounce it as Del Nort. That is most annoying.
That being said, the spelling “ax” has now become so common and usual that it has made it’s way into the standard American dictionary.
Yes, evolution of language is afoot — always has been. That’s the nature of language, an ebb and flow according to the preferred nuances of the day. Both spellings have been around for a long time. Longer, in fact, than the United States’ existence. And both spellings have morphed from earlier spellings: Old English “æx,” Old Frisian “axa,” Old High German “acchus,” Old Norse “öx,” Latin “ascia” and — last but certainly not least — Greek “axinē. Around these parts, there’s a street named “Greenwich” that gets pronounced, for the most part, as “greenwitch.” A few of the locals (myself included) prefer to say it as “grenitch.” C’est la vie!