A hatchet is a single handed striking tool with a sharp blade on one side, used to cut and split wood, and a hammerhead on the other side. The name comes from the Old French hachete, a diminutive of hache, meaning axe. Although hand axes and hatchets are sometimes used interchangeably today, nineteenth and twentieth century manufacturers distinguished them, hatchets being specialized construction tools with straight handles built for particular jobs, while hand axes were general purpose woods tools. Common hatchet patterns include the carpenter's hatchet, the roofing or shingling hatchet, and the lathing or drywall hatchet. In Middle English the term also referred to small battle axes. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Introduced When (Circa)Earliest known use of the word dates to the Middle English period (1150 to 1500 CE); the tool form itself predates this attestation. 1 OriginName derives from the Old French hachete, a diminutive of hache (axe), itself of Germanic origin; 19th and 20th century American tool manufacturers catalogued hatchets separately from hand axes. 1 Sources
1. Hatchet (Wikipedia)
Lead section, paragraph 2
The earliest known use of the noun hatchet is in the Middle English period
Lead section, paragraph 1
A hatchet (from the Old French hachete, a diminutive form of hache, ‘axe’ of Germanic origin) is a single-handed striking tool with a sharp blade on one side used to cut and split wood, and a hammerhead on the other side.
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