kieranm.09554
  Junior Editor

I grew up in California in the 60’s and 70’s and always learned “ax” for all things except the Stanford Axe (which the winner of the Stanford-Cal Big Game gets possession of for the next year). I see it that way in newspapers occasionally and almost never see axe except in British sources. Like Joyce Welch I often prefer British spellings but not for this one.
Ive never seen the verb distinction OP discusses, either. I guess because of the Stanford Axe, when I see axe I tend to think of it as a noun only, but would usually expect ax as both a noun and verb. more »