'axe' (and derived forms like 'axed') originates from Old English, specifically the word 'æx' (also written 'eax' in some sources'), where the root meant 'a cutting tool' or 'axe.'

'axe' changed from Old English 'æx' into Middle English forms 'axe'/'ax' and eventually became the modern English word 'axe' (with the variant spelling 'ax' in American English). The verbal sense 'to axe' (to cut or to cancel) developed later from the noun.

Initially, it meant 'a handheld cutting tool'; over time it evolved into the verb 'to cut with an axe' and later developed figurative senses such as 'to cancel' or 'to dismiss,' especially in 20th-century English (e.g., 'to get the axe').