hatchet

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A small, light axe with a short handle; a tomahawk.

   “It must be admitted, Nick, you are a very literal logician—‘dog won't eat dog,’ is our English saying. Still the Yankee will fight the Yengeese, it would seem. In a word, the Great Father, in England, has raised the hatchet against his American children.”.

2. 2
   noun

   Belligerence, animosity; harsh criticism.

   To bury the hatchet.

3. 3
   noun

   a small ax with a short handle used with one hand (usually to chop wood)

4. 4
   noun

   weapon consisting of a fighting ax

From Middle English hachet, a borrowing from Old French hachete, diminutive of hache (“axe”), from Vulgar Latin *happia, from Frankish *happjā, from Proto-Germanic *hapjǭ, *habjǭ (“knife”), from Proto-Indo-European *kop- (“to strike, to beat”). Cognate with Old High German happa, heppa, habba (“reaper, sickle”), German Hippe (“billhook”), Dutch heep, hiep (“billhook”), and Ancient Greek κοπίς (kopís). Mostly displaced native Old English handæx, whence Modern English hand axe.

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