sax

• IPA^(key): /sæks/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Homophones: sacks, Sacks, Sachs, Sax
• Rhymes: -æks

From Middle English sax, sex, from Old English seax (“a knife, hip-knife, an instrument for cutting, a short sword, dirk, dagger”), from Proto-West Germanic *sahs, from Proto-Germanic *sahsą (“stone chip, knife”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”). Doublet of seax and zax.

sax (plural saxes)

1. A slate-cutter’s hammer; slate-ax.
2. (obsolete) A knife or sword; a dagger about 50 cm (20 inches) in length.

sax (third-person singular simple present saxes, present participle saxing, simple past and past participle saxed)

1. (transitive, British dialectal) To cut or slash with a sharp instrument; incise; scarify.

Clipping of saxophone. Distantly related to etymology 1 above, because the “Sax” surname is a cognate.

sax (plural saxes)

1. Clipping of saxophone.

sax (third-person singular simple present saxes, present participle saxing, simple past and past participle saxed)

1. To play the saxophone

Clipping of saxe blue, from the name of the region of Saxony.

sax (plural saxes)

1. (fashion) a shade of colour similar to sky blue

   sax:  

• Japanese: サックス (sakkusu)

• ASX, XAS

sax

1. bird skin coat

• IPA^(key): /sɑks/
• Hyphenation: sax
• Rhymes: -ɑks
• Homophone: Sax

Borrowed, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *sahsą (“stone chip, knife”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”). The word also existed in the sixteenth century, but became obsolete and was borrowed again.

sax c (plural saxen, diminutive saxje n)

1. sax, short sword, dagger

Borrowed from English sax or less probably a native formation from saxofoon.

sax m (plural saxen, diminutive saxje n)

1. (informal) sax, saxophone

   Synonym: saxofoon

Learned borrowing from Old Norse sax. Doublet of saksa, Saksa, sakset, saksi (“claw”), saksi (“Saxon”), Saksi, and seax.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɑks/, [ˈs̠ɑ̝ks̠]
• Rhymes: -ɑks

sax

1. (historical) seax (a type of sword)

   Synonyms: seax, viikinkimiekka

• sexe, sex, sæx, seax

From Old English seax, from Proto-West Germanic *sahs, from Proto-Germanic *sahsą.

• IPA^(key): /saks/
• Rhymes: -aks

sax (plural saxes)

1. a knife (tool)
2. a knife (weapon)

• English: sax; zax
• Scots: saks; sax (verb) (through confluence with Norse form)

• “sax, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-24.

sax

1. alive
2. healthy
3. whole

From Proto-Germanic *sahsą (“dagger, knife”). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”).

sax n (genitive sax, plural sǫx)

1. a one-edged sword, a backsword
2. (plural only) shears

• saxa (“to cut with a 'sax'”)
• saxknífr m (“dagger, dirk”)
• saxoddr m (“the point of a 'sax”)

• saxar m pl (“Saxons”)

“sax”, in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press

• sex, six

From Middle English sex, byform of six.

• IPA^(key): /saks/

sax

1. six

• “sax, num. adj.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 21 May 2024, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.
• “sex, num. and n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 21 May 2024, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
• “six, num. adj., n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 21 May 2024, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.

From Old Norse sǫx (plural of sax), from Proto-Germanic *sahsą, from Proto-Indo-European *sek-.

• Audio:

  (file)

sax c

1. a pair of scissors; shears
2. a trap for animals

• → Finnish: sakset pl, saksi sg

Clipping of saxofon, attested since 1934.

• Audio:

  (file)

sax c

1. short of saxofon

• altsax
• saxsektion
• tenorsax

• sax in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• sax in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• sax in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)