ἀξίνη <Semitic?; Archaic period>
👉 ἀξίνη [---], Doric ἀξίνα, f. – ‘axe’ (Hom., Il. 13.612, 15.711; Hdt. 7.64; Soph., Ant. 1109; etc.).
🅔 Probably a Semitic loanword – Akkadian ḫaṣṣinnu(m) ‘axe’, Aramaic (Hatra) ḥṣn ‘id.’, Jewish Aramaic ḥăṣṣînā ‘id.’, Syriac ḥaṣṣīnā ‘pickaxe, axe’, etc.; cf. Sumerian hazin ‘axe’, Armenian kacʿin ‘axe, hatchet’. Greek ἀξ- is a result of a metathesis: Semitic ḥaṣ- → Greek *ἀχσ-; cf. ἀρσενικόν, ἄσφαλτος. In terms of phonetics, cf. two other explanations proposed to date: 1. ἀξ- from haḥṣ- (ha- would be a definite article), with psilosis of the initial h-; 2. ἀξ- from ḥaṣṣ-, with the dissimilation of -ṣṣ- (leading eventually to -χσ- > -ξ-) and with psilosis of the initial ḥ (in the Ionian dialect); but note that Semitic ḫ / ḥ was generally rendered as χ /kh/ in Greek. The Semitic origin of ἀξίνη is not commonly accepted. Cf. other etymological proposals: 1. a Wanderwort, connected with Latin ascia (< *acsia ?) ‘axe’, Gothic aqizi ‘id.’, etc.; 2. a Proto-Indo-European word related to Latin ascia (< *acsia ?) ‘axe’, Gothic aqizi ‘id.’, etc. 3. a Pre-Greek word (-īn- treated as an alleged Pre-Greek suffix); 5. ἀξίνη, Akkadian ḫaṣṣinnu(m) etc. borrowed independently from an Anatolian language.
📖 Data: CAD: VI, 133f.; CDA: 110; DJBA: 479; DNWSI: 400; NDAE: 338; PSD: s.v. hazin; SL: 483. Ref.: Bai 2009: 28-30; Hemmerdinger 1970: 45; Lewy 1931: 29; Makkay 1998: 190-195; Rosół 2013: 21-23; Szemerényi 1974: 149; cf. DELG: 94; EDG: 111; GEW: I, 115f.; Lewy 1895: 178.