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pickaxe

noun
/ˈpɪkˌæks/US

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English pykeaxe, pecaxe, pyke exe (“pickaxe”), an alteration (due to folk etymology association with pick and axe) of Middle English pikeyse, pikeys, pykois, from Anglo-Norman *pikeis, Old French picois, pecois, from Latin picōsa (“pickaxe”), from picca, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *pīk (“sharp point, pike”). Doublet of pique and pike.

  1. derived from *pīk✻ — “sharp point, pike”
  2. derived from picōsa — “pickaxe”
  3. derived from picois
  4. derived from *pikeis✻
  5. inherited from pykeaxe

Definitions

  1. A heavy iron tool with a wooden handle

    A heavy iron tool with a wooden handle; one end of the head is pointed, the other has a chisel edge.

    • He was mining stone using a pickaxe.

  2. To use a pickaxe.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at pickaxe. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01pickaxe02chisel03pounding04old-fashioned05preferring06preferre07prefer08choosing09choose10pick

A definitional loop anchored at pickaxe. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at pickaxe

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA