Axe Question

[A. G. Maisey]

I cannot disagree with that, but since the way in which a word is understood changes from place to place & time to time, and in some places from person to person, if we are to classify anything with reasonable accuracy, then we must place it into context.

So, if the hatchet that started this thread is a square poll axe, then I feel that we must place that terminology into a frame of when & where it would have been named as a square poll axe. Here in Australia I believe most people would simply call it an old tomahawk, or tommyhawk, or hawk, or hatchet.

When the way in which we use & understand words arises as a subject for discussion, I cannot help but recall some of my early lessons in the English language, and the word "occupy". From the 1500's through to the early 1800's "occupy" could be understood in a very different way to our current understanding. Apparently, in Shakespeare's England, use of the word in public could get you time in the stocks.