fax

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A document sent or received using a fax machine.

   I just received a fax with the signed contract.

2. 2
   verb

   To send a document using a fax machine.

   Can you fax me the report right away?

3. 3
   noun

   A machine that sends and prints documents over a phone line.

   Take this document down the hall to the fax.

Simplified etymology

Fax arose in the 1940s as an abbreviation of facsimile. Facsimile comes from modern Latin fac simile, literally “make like,” and originally referred to making an exact copy, especially of writing.

From Middle English fax, from Old English feax (“hair, head of hair”), from Proto-West Germanic *fahs, from Proto-Germanic *fahsą (“hair, mane”), from Proto-Indo-European *poḱsom (“hair”, literally “that which is combed, shorn, or plucked”), from Proto-Indo-European *peḱ- (“to comb, shear, pluck”). Cognate with Dutch vas (“headhair”), German Fachs (“head-hair”), Norwegian faks (“mane”), Icelandic fax (“mane”), Sanskrit पक्ष्मन् (pákṣman, “eyelash, hair, filament”).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary