221: ax versus axe Jul 17, 2015

Why is it that 'ax' and 'axe' are both acceptable spellings‽ Because in Old English, the 'a' was a long vowel sound, so over time many started writing the word with a silent 'e', but since the 'a' is now pronounced short, the silent 'e' is was not always included at the time when English was being standardized.