Axe To Grind

JAMESBJOHNSON · Apr 10, 2015

AXE TO GRIND is an old expression.

In modern times the expression is the label for sinister folks with chips on their shoulders wanting justification to be violent or punitive. But in the Old Days it referred to folks who used social occasions for utilitarian outcomes, like sharpening dull axes. That is, manipulate others for free services.

jomar · Apr 10, 2015

I've always taken it to mean folks have an agenda.

JAMESBJOHNSON · Apr 10, 2015

jomar said:
I've always taken it to mean folks have an agenda.

Yes, it does. But the agenda has changed from sharpening an axe to justification for using the axe.

TxRad · Apr 10, 2015

JAMESBJOHNSON said:
Yes, it does. But the agenda has changed from sharpening an axe to justification for using the axe.

Has it?

JAMESBJOHNSON · Apr 10, 2015

TxRad said:
Has it?

Its a bitch to be bored, aint it?

Let me be clear, I don't get in the gladiator arena with toothless geezers in scoot around carts.

TxRad · Apr 10, 2015

JAMESBJOHNSON said:
Its a bitch to be bored, aint it?

Let me be clear, I don't get in the gladiator arena with toothless geezers in scoot around carts.

Yeah, you'd see it that way. The only problem is i remember my grandfather using it as it is used now way back in the early to mid fifties. So how far back are you talking and where is your documentation?

Otherwise this is just another look at me post on your part.

JAMESBJOHNSON · Apr 10, 2015

TxRad said:
Yeah, you'd see it that way. The only problem is i remember my grandfather using it as it is used now way back in the early to mid fifties. So how far back are you talking and where is your documentation?

Otherwise this is just another look at me post on your part.

Google is your friend. I'm not.

But if you could think you'd fall over the insight that sharpening an axe isn't exactly a harbinger of doom. I sharpened a chain saw blade the other day, AUGGGGGGHHHH.

sr71plt · Apr 10, 2015

jomar said:
I've always taken it to mean folks have an agenda.

Agree, and in U.S. style it's "ax," not "axe." (you won't find an entry under "axe" in Webster's) UK style uses "axe."

Zeb_Carter · Apr 10, 2015

So Jimmy is a closet Brit?

JAMESBJOHNSON · Apr 10, 2015

sr71plt said:
Agree, and in U.S. style it's "ax," not "axe." (you won't find an entry under "axe" in Webster's) UK style uses "axe."

He means his ebonics dictionary.

49greg · Apr 10, 2015

JAMESBJOHNSON said:
He means his ebonics dictionary.

Did he ax him to grind his ax?

sr71plt · Apr 10, 2015

49greg said:
Did he ax him to grind his ax?

I did it to see what irrelevant idiocy JBJ would respond with--and got the typical Pavlovian response.

JackLuis · Apr 11, 2015

JBJ are you talking about Louie Gomert again?

JAMESBJOHNSON · Apr 11, 2015

sr71plt said:
I did it to see what irrelevant idiocy JBJ would respond with--and got the typical Pavlovian response.

But either spelling is okay, which demonstrates how clueless you are.

robertreams · Apr 11, 2015

JBJ, I love the way you make pronouncements about how we all think and talk "nowadays". Oh mighty Guru, please tell us how we all talk and think. I don't think of violence and mayhem at all when someone uses the phrase "ax to grind" According to my dictionary, it means and has always meant, "to have an ulterior or hidden motive."

What sky or butt do you pull this stuff from?

sr71plt · Apr 11, 2015

JAMESBJOHNSON said:
But either spelling is okay, which demonstrates how clueless you are.

Not in publishing (of which you continue to demonstrate that you are clueless), which uses the first-listed version for consistency sake. As I noted, "axe" doesn't even have it's own listing in the dictionary most publishers use.

RejectReality · Apr 11, 2015

Okay, that is the last thing I expected to read this morning. I've seen "ax" used before, but not very often, and always took it as a bastardization of the word.

Looking it up and seeing it as the accepted U.S. spelling just blew my mind. As SR said, "axe" isn't even listed as an alternative in the couple of places I looked. It has its own separate entry as the UK spelling.

Maybe it's a peculiarity of fantasy novels to use the UK spelling? Considering the overwhelming percentage of those that dominate my reading and the higher odds of the word appearing at all, that could be it.

May have to dig up some books where I know one of the MCs is an axe-wielder and see if it's actually spelled that way, or whether my brain just translated it into what I expected to see.

RejectReality · Apr 11, 2015

Half a dozen novels, and every one of them uses "axe" as the spelling.

Looks like fantasy publishers prefer that as the the standard, which explains my WTF?! moment.

geronimo_appleby · Apr 12, 2015

Zeb_Carter said:
So Jimmy is a closet Brit?

we don't want him, the oaf has no decorum whatsoever.

sr71plt · Apr 12, 2015

RejectReality said:
Half a dozen novels, and every one of them uses "axe" as the spelling.

Looks like fantasy publishers prefer that as the the standard, which explains my WTF?! moment.

Doesn't really surprise me. Publishers and categories of publishers have their individual quirks. The ax-wielding genre is probably just a couple of steps up from computer manuals. Bet they publish in Arial font too.

RejectReality · Apr 12, 2015

Well, that couldn't have been much more unnecessarily insulting. Kudos.

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