c. 1300 (mid-12c. in surnames), "small axe with a short handle," designed to be used by one hand, from Old French hachete "small combat-axe, hatchet," diminutive of hache "axe, battle-axe, pickaxe," possibly from Frankish *happja or some other Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *hapjo- (cognates: Old High German happa "sickle, scythe"), from PIE root *kop- "to beat, strike" (cognates: Greek kopis "knife;" Lithuanian kaplys "hatchet," kapoti "cut small;" Old Church Slavonic skopiti "castrate").
Hatchet-face in reference to one with sharp and prominent features is from 1650s. In Middle English, hatch itself was used in a sense "battle-axe." In 14c., hang up (one's) hatchet meant "stop what one is doing." Phrase bury the hatchet (1794) is from a supposed Native American peacemaking custom. Hatchet-man was originally California slang for "hired Chinese assassin" (1880), later extended figuratively to journalists who attacked the reputation of a public figure (1944).
双语例句
1. The press did a very effective hatchet job on her last movie.
新闻界对她新近拍摄的电影大加诋毁。
来自《权威词典》
2. Will the time never come when we may honourably bury the hatchet?
难道我们永远不可能有个体面地休战的时候 吗 ?
来自《简明英汉词典》
3. She went for him with a hatchet.
她操起短柄斧向他扑去.
来自《简明英汉词典》
4. They reckoned he was a hatchet man, out to shred the workforce and crush the union.
他们估计他是上司派来的刽子手，专门对工人大开杀戒，大肆镇压工会。
来自柯林斯例句
5. We had been enemies a long time, but after the flood we buried the hatchet.