<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span>I may be late to the party on this, but "hatchet" is actually A Real Period Word. You can find some spellings of it in context at <a target="_blank" href="http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED19757&egs=all&egdisplay=open">http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED19757&egs=all&egdisplay=open</a><br><br><br><br><br><br>But if we're going for a medieval English word for an axe, my vote's for the more obscure 'wifle':<br><span><a target="_blank"
href="http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=byte&byte=243159508&egdisplay=open&egs=243161166">http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=byte&byte=243159508&egdisplay=open&egs=243161166</a></span><br><br><br><br><br></span><br>Some other axe-words in medieval English, with their various spellings:<br><br>'ax'<br><span><a target="_blank" href="http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED3312&egs=all&egdisplay=open">http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED3312&egs=all&egdisplay=open</a></span><br><br>'batel-ax'<br><span><a target="_blank" href="http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED3778&egs=all&egdisplay=open">http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED3778&egs=all&egdisplay=open</a></span><br><br>'bol-ax'<br><span><a target="_blank"
href="http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED5425&egs=all&egdisplay=open">http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED5425&egs=all&egdisplay=open</a></span><br><br>'borstax'<br><span><a target="_blank" href="http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED5571&egs=all&egdisplay=open">http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED5571&egs=all&egdisplay=open</a></span><br><br>'hache'<br><span><a target="_blank" href="http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED19755&egs=all&egdisplay=open">http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED19755&egs=all&egdisplay=open</a><br><br>'thixel'<br><span><a target="_blank"
href="http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED45354&egs=all&egdisplay=open">http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED45354&egs=all&egdisplay=open</a></span><br></span><br><br>'barbe' is the cutting edge of an axe<br><span><a target="_blank" href="http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=byte&byte=11379161&egdisplay=open&egs=11381503">http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=byte&byte=11379161&egdisplay=open&egs=11381503</a></span><br><br><br><br>Karen<br></div></div></body></html>