Ax vs. Axe–What’s the Difference?

Ax and axe are different spellings of the same word. There is no difference in meaning or pronunciation. However, you might be surprised by all the possible meanings these two spellings share. The Merriam-Webster lists three primary definitions besides the cutting tool. Axe also refers to a hammer with a sharp edge for dressing or spalling stone. Musical instruments, such as guitars and saxophones, are also axes. As a verb, axe means the abrupt removal of something. You’ll recognize that meaning in the phrase, “get the axe” which sometimes refers to a dismissal, such as someone being fired from their job.

Here’s a tip: Outside of the United States, you are most likely to encounter the longer spelling—axe. But you will see axe in American English fairly frequently.

Many dictionaries say that “ax” is the most common spelling in the U.S. You will find the shortened form in compound names such as pickax and poleax. However, according to Garner’s Modern English Usage, axe is actually about twice as common as ax.

Expressions with Axe or Ax

Do you know any other phrases that contain axe? How about “an axe to grind?” People often use the expression when they have a complaint: I have an axe to grind with you! In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin relates a story about a man who asked a smith to sharpen his axe. He eventually ends up turning the grindstone himself, thus sharpening his own tool. Whether the story connects directly to the idiom is uncertain, but later, another author published a similar story with the expression “an axe to grind.” In this story, axe refers to a selfish ulterior motive.

When I see a merchant, overpolite to his customers–begging them to taste a little brandy, and throwing half his goods on the counter–thinks I–That man has an axe to grind.

Who’ll Turn Grindstones? published anonymously

Another common expression is “to get the axe.” Though axes are useful tools, getting the axe means to be fired or expelled! If a project or service gets the axe, that means that it’s discontinued. The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms relates the origins this term to the axe of an executioner.

I could see my mother going in Spaulding’s and asking the salesman a million dopey questions—and here I was getting the ax again. It made me feel pretty sad.

J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye

Here’s a tip:

• “To have an axe to grind” is often used when someone has a complaint.
• “To get the axe” means to be fired or expelled.
• Battle axe is often used metaphorically, but it can be offensive—so, take care!

Historically, battle axes were weapons for hand-to-hand combat. Warriors also launched them at their enemies from a distance. However, the term is also used figuratively. Do you remember the cruel character Miss Agatha Trunchbull from the book (or film) Matilda? This ferocious school administrator punished one girl by swinging her around in a circle by her pigtails. Was she a battle-axe? This term is sometimes applied to women who are seen as angry or controlling, but many consider it to be offensive.

He emerges as a genuinely likeable guy—the opposite of his battle-ax of a mother—who always cast a wry eye on the world’s follies.

David Anfam, Concrete Expressionism; David Anfam on De Kooning: An American Master

Do you write ax or axe? Cast your vote for the correct spelling in our poll.

Wont vs. Won’t—What’s the Difference?

• Won’t is the correct way to contract will not.
• Wont is a type of behavior that is specific to a person. It’s also the wrong way to spell won’t.

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Sometimes, when you forget to use an apostrophe, you get a word that’s just a misspelling of the original. But with won’t and wont, you get a word with its own completely unrelated meaning.

What Does Won’t Mean?

When we say won’t, we are actually saying will not. The form with the apostrophe is a contraction, like “don’t” and “can’t.” We owe the “o” in won’t to a sixteenth-century form of the word: wonnot.

You won’t find a better farmers market in the city.

It looked like it was going to rain for a second, but now it looks like it won’t.

What Does Wont Mean?

Wont is usually used as a noun meaning “a type of behavior specific to a person,” or “a habit.” It can also be used as an adjective synonymous with “accustomed.”

He went for a morning jog, as was his wont.

He was wont to jog every morning.

Examples

There may be more Andromeda games on the way, too—though there won’t necessarily be a trilogy.

Gamespot

Although a new agreement between the RCMP and China aims to stop the flow of fentanyl into Canada, an expert says it won’t be easy.

CBC

The dialogue-free Past Forward, which runs almost 13 minutes, gives Russell a chance to do what is his wont: swing the camera wildly, work with as many actors as possible, and direct dance sequences.

A. V. Club

As is his wont these days, the 38-year-old kept producing witty one-liners the same way in which fours and sixes flew off his bat.

The Times of India

Is It Honor or Honour?

The notion of honor varies greatly from one culture to another. Ideas about what it means to have it, how to obtain it, and how to preserve are studied by sociologists and anthropologists. But here we’ll be studying how to spell it. Here’s the deal: you can write honor in your college paper, or honour in your university test, and in both cases you’d be correct. But some might frown if you do it the other way around, because there is a slight difference between the two spellings that has nothing to do with the meaning of the word itself: Honor is the preferred spelling in American English and is pronounced ˈä-nər; Honour is the preferred spelling in British English and is pronounced /ˈɒnə/.

The -our / -or Dilemma

There is a group of words in the English language that have the same dual spelling option as honor. They all have in common the same ending: -or in American English and -our in British English. Not every word with an -or ending in American English is spelled -our in British English—words like governor and meteor are spelled the same in both variants of English. It goes the other way around as well—tour and troubadour are spelled with -our on both sides of the Atlantic ocean.

But words like color, favor, and honor—spelled as such in American English—are colour, favour, and honour in British English. The person who receives the most credit for this dropping of u is Noah Webster, the American lexicographer, whose dictionaries were very influential on American English. He wasn’t the first person to favor the shorter spelling—Benjamin Franklin advocated spelling reform years before the lexicographer became interested. But when he did, he made history. Years before that, Webster’s British counterpart, the equally influential lexicographer Samuel Johnson, came out in support of the longer spelling. And that’s how it has stayed to this day . . . sort of.

Exceptions:When Even British English Speakers Prefer -or

There are certain cases when British writers drop that u. Words like honorary and honorous are spelled the same way in American English and British English. That’s not the end of it, though—honorific, honorial, and honoration are also always spelled the same.

Examples of Honor and Honour

I am eternally grateful for my knack of finding in great books, some of them very funny books, reason enough to feel honored to be alive, no matter what else might be going on. —Kurt Vonnegut, Timequake

They gathered together at the site of the Battle of the Somme, 100 years after the bloodiest day in British military history, to honor the dead. —NPR

Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. —Winston Churchill, Never Give In!: The Best of Winston Churchill’s Speeches

The ‘Grand Vermeil’ is regarded as Paris’s most prestigious honour and has been awarded to Nobel Prize in literature winner Toni Morrison, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and jazz pianist Herbie Hancock. —BBC

Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly’s Most Charming Smile Award. —J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

David Spearing, Wimbledon’s senior honorary steward, believes he has Sir Terry Wogan to thank for turning him into a cult figure. —The Telegraph

Why Is Groundhog Day a Holiday? An Investigation

According to tradition and lore, Groundhog Day is when you find out whether spring is on its way or whether you’ve got six more weeks before winter runs its course. Observed on February 2, the holiday involves watching a rodent pop its head out of the ground and predicting the weather based on that.

Here’s how it works: if you’ve got cloudy skies when the groundhog shows up, then you can expect an early spring. If it’s sunny, then the groundhog sees its shadow and heads back into its burrow to keep up the hibernation, and winter sticks around for another six weeks.

At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work. According to the National Centers for Climatic Information, the groundhogs get it right about 40% of the time. Still, this is a holiday about traditions, not accuracy. So to learn the full origin of Groundhog Day—linguistically and historically—read on.

Origin of the word

“Groundhog” is a compound word, and the two words that make it up give a pretty clear explanation of what it is. “Ground” means the solid surface of the Earth. Makes sense: that’s where groundhogs hang out. A “hog” is a hoofed animal, and the word is most often associated with pigs. The hefty oinkers we now think of as hogs may not be exactly twins of the rodent we call the “groundhog,” but the latter’s turned-up snout, tendency to burrow, and usually pudgy shape might have led to the use of “hog” to describe it.

If you’re not convinced by the “hog” connection, you’re not alone. Before the word “groundhog” became widely accepted, other names for the animal were also used. The most common were “whistlepig,” because of the sound they make when frightened, and “land beaver,” because of their resemblance to those flat-tailed dam builders who live in the water.

There’s also “woodchuck,” which is still used by the Brits. Even though a woodchuck can, in theory, “chuck wood,” the word actually comes from otchok or wejak, words for the animal in Algonquian (a group of North American Indian languages).

But back to groundhogs. The first known appearance of the word “groundhog” was in 1784. Less than a decade after American Independence, settlers in the United States were getting to know the lay of the land around them—including the wildlife. Over the next decades, they developed traditions and celebrations involving those critters.

Origin of the holiday

Differing accounts trace Groundhog Day to the 1840s, 1870s, or (more officially) 1887. Before any of those dates, the Christian holiday Candlemas was celebrated on February 2. Over time, and specifically in German immigrant settlements in Pennsylvania, this day came to be associated with the groundhog, too.

Burrowing through the dirt to find the earliest records of the celebration, here’s what we find:

In 1841, a storekeeper’s diary in Morgantown, Pennsylvania included the following:

Last Tuesday, the 2nd, was Candlemas day, the day on which, according to the Germans, the Groundhog peeps out of his winter quarters and if he sees his shadow he pops back for another six weeks nap, but if the day be cloudy he remains out, as the weather is to be moderate.

Thirty years later, Maximillian Schele de Vere wrote a book called Americanisms: The English of the New World. In it, he explained:

Candlemas is known as Ground-hog Day, for on that day the ground-hog comes annually out of his hole, after a long winter nap, to look for his shadow.

Even before our friends the groundhogs got involved, Candlemas was associated with predicting when spring would come. An old English song contained the lyrics:

If Candlemas be fair and bright,

Come, Winter, have another flight.

Isn’t history-hunting fun? Now we’re getting somewhere.

Things got official in 1887, when the town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania started referring to a local groundhog as their official meteorologist. The tradition has only grown from there. Officially, the historical hog is named “Punxsutawney Phil,” though groundhogs of other names have also made predictions over the years.

How to celebrate today

Punxsutawney is the official home of the groundhog who has made February 2 famous, and Gobbler’s Knob is the hill where the annual shadow-observing ceremony takes place. Punxsutawney Phil is famous in his own right, but he skyrocketed to greater fame with the 1993 movie Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray.

After the movie’s success, Gobbler’s Knob has seen an annual influx of tourists numbering up to 30,000. Not bad for an old tradition—thanks a bunch, Hollywood.

In addition to inspiring a film and spawning a hot tourist trap, Groundhog Day has kept up with the times in other ways. If you’re curious about what Punxsutawney Phil will say about the springtime this year but can’t make it to the Gobbler’s Knob festivities, you can text “Groundhog” to 247365 to find out whether you can pack away the layers.

Whether you make the trek to Gobbler’s Knob, send Phil a friendly text, or just stick your hand out the window to feel the temperature until it finally feels like spring, now you know the history of the groundhog and his weather wisdom.

How Gaming Can Up-Level Your Communication at Work

The guild’s next raid will be a daring one: your small company is barely a month away from unveiling its new product. Everyone in your party will need to understand the plan and play their part in this perilous adventure.

Andrea, a level-thirty design mage, is worried there might be hidden traps en route to the treasure. Ben and Eduardo, both seasoned software paladins, are not certain the team can crank out enough rapid-fire damage to finish off the nefarious code lich in time. Elissa, a neophyte copy elf, is too nervous to admit she’s puzzled by the arcane machine in the breakroom that the team relies on for elixirs—er, coffee. I hope the team cleric casts a pizza buff soon, she tells no one. I’m sick of listening to the compliance shaman drone on.

One thing that will help this crew—and yours, too—is communication. No one player can carry the team alone; knowing what the others are working on, why, and how their respective efforts all fit into a shared goal is essential to unlocking high-level achievements.

Luckily, this doesn’t have to be a total chore: hard-won lessons in collaboration from gaming also apply in team situations at work.

Take turns and ask for pointers

Work communications, like many games, are often asynchronous—you send an email and then wait for a reply, you make your move and then watch to see what the next player does, etc.

One way to think about this is like a friendly game of chess with a workmate at the office. Let’s say it’s untimed, so the match might unspool over the course of a week. A few times each day, you walk by the board and see your colleague has slid a note to your side of the table that says “your move.” You study your options and make a decision, then slide the note back across.

The key difference between this game of chess and your ongoing email thread with Randy from engineering is this: you and Randy are working toward the same objective—a successful product launch next month. So instead of trying to outfox him with a crafty discovered check, you can simply ask Randy for input on your next move, e.g., “Hey, what’s the range of outputs for this field we’re adding? I need to draft descriptions ahead of Thursday’s meeting.”

Soliciting pointers from other players can be a boon, since eliminating guesswork improves the team’s efficiency—and also because working and playing alongside people with different skills and experience is a great way to step up your game.

Establish, listen, and expound

This collaborative spirit also applies in games with more players and quicker turns, just as it might in a meeting where you and several colleagues are trying to puzzle through a series of design hurdles.

Consider a cooperative game like Pandemic, where players take on such roles as medic, researcher, and operations expert in a race to halt the spread of disease around the globe. In Pandemic, it’s often helpful to devise a plan by working backward from where you’re trying to end up; each player often knows their next move well before their turn. So the scientist can work to discover a cure for the disease while the medic battles to stem its spread, and so on.

Sometimes it’s helpful to start by establishing what’s known—what challenges your team has to surmount, for instance, along with limitations (deadlines at the office, turn order around the table, etc). Here, it pays not only to be a thoughtful listener but also to show others you’re hearing them. It’s not a point you have to belabor, but building on what’s already been said before adding fresh ideas can be a way to steer the conversation forward, toward a collaborative solution.

It’s also worth remembering that players who aren’t eager talkers often still have worthwhile ideas—so when you can, make sure they have room to open up.

Be direct, keep calm, and minimize chatter

In some games, there is no waiting—everyone is actively playing all the time. Think of a game like Pit, which emulates bidding and trading for commodities in a crowded exchange: this tends to involve a lot of yelling, as well as trying to mentally filter which shouts you need to hear so you know who to transact with next.

That approach might sound fun for a little while, but it quickly gets unwieldy around the office—or while your team is in the midst of a complex assault, like that aforementioned raid.

In such circumstances, as with a heads-down deadline push at work, it’s key to impart lots of information with minimal chatter. For instance, players in games like Destiny use detailed callouts—the shorter, the better—in order to apprise their teammates of foes’ locations on a given map.

Here, as in the office, word economy is essential: be direct. Just as it helps to be succinct and not snippy with your teammates, so too must you find a balance with your colleagues, being assertive but not overbearing. The goal is to aid coordination—to make sure the design mage’s spells afford the team plenty of breathing room as the code paladins hack away.

Honing these techniques can help ensure your team doesn’t end up blindsided and on tilt in the midst of your next project. If this all takes some practice, that’s okay—every day with your team is another chance to grind more experience points!

Brick-and-Mortar Bookstores Are Bringing Their A-Game: Help Spread the Love

Do you love being able to walk into your local bookstore and actually pick up a book and look through its pages?

The boom in e-reader and tablet sales are creating stiff competition for brick and mortar bookstores. Just as the corporate chains threatened to gobble up the independent competition in the pre-tablet, today’s digital media giants threaten brick and mortar merchants. Bookstore owners and managers are forced to think outside of the proverbial box in order to find creative ways of marketing their tangible wares for a public increasingly drawn to cloud storage and digital copies.

Many bookworms who are still dedicated to their physical copies don’t realize just how much they can help these bookstores increase their reach. Here are a few ways to spread the love and help them boost visibility and increase vitality.

• Shop Locally – Everyone knows about the cultural shift to shopping locally in response to growing corporate monopolies. Still, the “buy local” ethos doesn’t always extend to books and the local stores that sell them. Part of supporting your community is supporting local businesses, which includes bookstores as much as groceries and boutiques.

• Be a Buyer, Not a Browser – One of the most troubling new trends in book buying is brick and mortar browsing, but online purchasing. Booksellers refer to the phenomenon as the “brick and click” mentality, and it’s actively using the resources of a local store while driving revenue to online retailers. These days, it’s not uncommon for customers to browse their local bookstore, ask the staff for recommendations or assistance, then leave empty-handed in order to purchase those recommendations at bargain prices online. Reading a few pages, checking out displays and sifting through staff recommendations makes it easy to choose intriguing new reads, but using your local bookstore as a tool to build your online shopping list doesn’t help to support your local seller’s bottom line.

• Become a Promoter – Follow your favorite local bookstore through social media outlets. Broadcast their hard work with clever displays by snapping a photo, then tagging the store when you share it on your own page. Retweet and share promotional updates, especially for in-store appearances and special author events. In a bid to stay relevant as they move into the digital age, more bookstores are making a point of hosting special events with which online retailers can’t hope to compete. Make a point of becoming a cheerleader for your local bookstore, potentially driving more traffic to their pages and customers to their storefront.

• Support Affiliate Programs –There’s no denying the convenience and joy of carrying hundreds of books in one small device. One thing even many dedicated e-book lovers don’t know is that plenty of independent bookstores have jumped on the digital bandwagon in their own unique way. Some e-reader manufacturers have actively paired with local booksellers in order to facilitate a profit share for e-books sold while others operate on an affiliate system. When you purchase your e-books through a local bookstore’s affiliate program, you’re able to fill your device while still supporting your favorite brick and mortar store.

Your local bookstore is working hard to prove their relevance to a new generation of readers, and you can help by supporting those efforts. Shopping at your local bookstore and encouraging others to do the same is a great way to make sure more of your money stays in your community, supporting job growth and helping the local economy flourish.

Embrace Your Geekness With the Character Sketch

You are a writer. You enjoy what you do, and you do it well. So, what do you love most about writing? Could you pick one specific thing? Are we speaking of fiction, nonfiction or poetry? Essays maybe? Where does editing fit in here? Be careful, it quickly becomes a complicated question.

If we parse out all of the elements of writing, there are literally thousands of specific mechanics from which we could choose. So, which one draws you back to the keyboard? The words, the phrases, the syllables? Perhaps you love a perfect metaphor, delivered like a soft kiss. Or is it the lilting sound of iambic pentameter in poetry that gets your ink flowing?

Each writing element presents a unique delight to the literary aficionado. However, one of our favorites here at Grammarly is the character sketch. A character sketch has the ability to stretch our collective imagination and serves as a literary witch’s cauldron – magically producing endless places and characters for use in fiction writing and poetry.

The term “character sketch” has its origins in portraiture. It was later nabbed as a literary term during the infancy of the English novel. Painters would often do a quick pencil sketch, or charcoal, of a subject. Using this sketch as a physical reminder, the painter could later elaborate upon it, transferring the subject to a larger canvas with much more patient skill.

The theory is the same for a literary sketch. Jotting down a few notes, or even a paragraph or two, the writer captures the unique essence of a character. The sketch then becomes a gestalt from which the writer can design a more in-depth literary portrait. It is a type of literary shorthand.

An easy technique to learn, the character sketch has become a staple of fiction writing. Many novelists begin a new work with an idea, then flesh out that idea by writing a sketch for each of their main characters. The process becomes a creative machine that breathes life and depth into each of their heroes and supporting cast. Many of the sketches spring forth from characters who people the writer’s imagination.

Try it sometime. To begin, you can always use subjects from real life. This removes any stress from the exercise and alleviates the pressure of performance. You don’t have to be Charles Dickens here, working on Sketches by Boz. Just think of it as an act of reporting, which indeed it is. Take a notebook with you the next time you go to a restaurant. Jot down what you notice about your server, or another person eating at a booth across from you.

“He is young man with blonde hair. His hair is longer in the back. His uniform is brown and gold. There is a yellow seal embroidered at his left breast. He is tall and lanky. His uniform does not fit well. His shoes are black. He walks hesitantly. There is a cloth belt wrapped around his waist.”

This is a basic character sketch. It contains all of the essential elements needed to give the reader a brief glimpse of this particular character. Using this thumbnail, a writer can then elaborate upon it as much as he or she wishes. Try writing a few of them and see how many unique characters your imagination can conjure.

“The windows in the restaurant did little to let the light in. A thin film of grease covered each one. The wan sunshine fell over each table lazily, as if it were too tired to try. The blonde man’s name was Zach. I saw the letters stitched on the front of his brown uniform. It hung off his tall frame like a scarecrow’s sack-suit. The embroidery was dull with grime and too few visits to the drycleaners.  He walked with a limp, some old injury perhaps, and his black shoes clunked. The chaotic swing of his server belt caught my eye like a pendulum. It was tied on too loosely and threatened to slide down to his knees with each step.”

Intrigued? July 13 is “Embrace Your Geekness” day. Try it with a character sketch!