Etymograph

English

pickaxe

Pickaxe comes from Latin picca ‘pickaxe, pike’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *pīkaz.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*pīkaz1‘sharp point, pike, pickaxe, peak’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*pīk2‘sharp point, pike’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpicca2‘pickaxe, pike’next step skipped: Latin pica
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpicōsa2
  5. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400*pikeis2reconstructed
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pikeyse2
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pykeaxe2
  8. Englishtodaypickaxe2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Proto-West Germanic *pīk
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English pickaxe

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*pīkazWiktionary, Proto-West Germanic *pīk‘sharp point, pike, pickaxe, peak’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*pīkWiktionary, English pickaxe‘sharp point, pike’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpiccaWiktionary, English pickaxe‘pickaxe, pike’next step skipped: Latin pica
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpicōsaWiktionary, English pickaxe
  5. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400*pikeisWiktionary, English pickaxereconstructed
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pikeyseWiktionary, English pickaxe
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pykeaxeWiktionary, English pickaxe
  8. EnglishtodaypickaxeWiktionary, English pickaxe

The story

Inherited from Middle English pykeaxe, pecaxe, pyke exe (‘pickaxe’), an alteration (due to folk etymology association with pick and axe) of Middle English pikeyse, pikeys, pykois, from Anglo-Norman *pikeis, Old French picois, pecois, from Latin picōsa (‘pickaxe’), from picca, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *pīk (‘sharp point, pike’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-West Germanic *pīk ‘sharp point, pike’

peak, pike

Today it means

noun A heavy iron tool with a wooden handle; one end of the head is pointed, the other has a chisel edge.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “pickaxe”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Proto-West Germanic *pīk. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *pīkaz / pickaxe

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