*ahslō

Runic: ᚨᚺᛊᛚᛟ Pronunciation: /ˈɑx.slɔː/

noun · feminine · ō-stem

Meanings

shoulder; shoulder-joint, probably including the adjacent armpit/underarm region

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱs-l-éh₂- ~ *h₂eḱs-(i)l-éh₂-, a feminine *-éh₂ derivative of root *h₂éḱs- with an *-l- extension (Kroonen 2013: 6). The broader Indo-European family includes Sanskrit अक्ष (akṣá-), Ancient Greek ἄξων (áxōn), Latin axis, and, with the l-extension/body-part sense, Latin āla and axilla (de Vaan 2008: 66–67; Kroonen 2013: 6; Lubotsky 2023: 256–57). Recent discussion of PIE wagon terminology treats the ‘axle’ and ‘armpit/shoulder-joint’ senses as originally identical, with later suffixal and semantic disambiguation across the branches (Lubotsky 2023: 257; van Sluis et al. 2023: 231).

Declension

CaseSingularPlural
Nom.ahslōahslôz
Acc.ahslǭahslōz
Gen.ahslōzahslǫ̂
Dat.ahslōiahslōmaz
Inst.ahslōahslōmiz
Voc.ahslōahslôz

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Descendants

  • *ahslu (Proto-West Germanic)
    • *assala (Old Dutch)
      • assele (Middle Dutch)
        • assel (Dutch)
  • *ahslu (Proto-West Germanic)
    • eaxl, eaxel, esl, exl (Old English)
      • axel, axle, eaxle, æxle, exle (Middle English)
        • axle (English)
        • aixle, exle (Scots)
  • *ahslu (Proto-West Germanic)
    • axle, axele (Old Frisian)
      • ascle (Saterland Frisian)
  • *ahslu (Proto-West Germanic)
    • axle, axele (Old Frisian)
      • ocsele (Middle Dutch)
        • oksel (Dutch)
          • oksel (Afrikaans)
  • *ahslu (Proto-West Germanic)
    • ahsala (Old High German)
      • ahsel (Middle High German)
        • Achsel (German)
        • אַקסל (aksl) (Yiddish)
  • ǫxl (Old Norse)
    • øksl (Faroese)
    • öxl (Icelandic)
    • aksel (Norwegian)
  • ǫxl (Old Norse)
    • axæl (Old Danish)
      • aksel (Danish)
  • ǫxl (Old Norse)
    • axl (Old Swedish)
      • axel (Swedish)

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