ex n1 Also earlier ex tree Also sp aix, eks, x [Scots, Engl dial varr of ax n; cf EDD ax sb.1, SND aix-tree n.] chiefly Nth, esp NEng, NY See Map Cf ax n, axle n, dead-ax wagon n, exe n
An axle.
1648 in 1850 CT (Colony) Pub. Rec. 1.508, Waine, wheeles, expinns, cops and pin. 1723 in 1855 Holland Hist. W. MA 2.219, Voted: That whatsoever parson or parsons shall be found to go with his or their extrees of their carts less than four foote from one shoulder of their extrees to the other . . shall forfeit as a fine to the towne five shillings for every such offence.” 1853 Lowell in Putnam’s Mag. 2.459 ME, “’Pears to me’s though I smelt sunthin.’ Aint the aix het, think?” The driver pulled up, and sure enough the off fore-wheel was found to be smoking. 1874 in 1995 Welch Families Cavendish 2.116 csVT, Elder Freeman called to get some extrees for a mower. 1890 DN 1.6 cNY, The sound [ɛ] instead of [æ] . . in catch, radish, eks (=axle). Ibid 73 NEng, Eks (usually written X): axle. Extremely common. 1907 DN 3.187 seNH, Ex. 1910 DN 3.441 wNY, Ex. 1914 DN 4.72 ME, nNH, Ex. 1917 DN 4.391 neOH, Ex. . . The usual native word. Axle was comparatively rare. 1923 DN 5.206 swMO, Ex. . . Axle, specifically, of a wagon. 1929 AmSp 5.121 eME, There was “mud to the exes.” 1935 AmSp 10.156 ME, A freshman student, from the town of Portland, Maine, describing the process of changing an automobile tire, writes, ‘Place the jack directly under the section of the ex nearest the flat’ (September 1934). Again, an impudent six-year old urchin, on the street in Orono, Maine, seeing an older boy riding horseback in what appeared to the youngster to be a fashion too effete, shouted derisively, ‘Can’t I sell you four wheels and a couple of exes?’ 1939 LANE Map 188 MA, VT, Names for the wagon axle were incidentally recorded in connection with the verb grease. . . [7 infs], Ex [ɛks]. 1950 WELS (The part of a wagon that has a wheel at each end) 8 Infs, WI, Ex. 1965–70 DARE (Qu. L48, The part of a wagon that goes crosswise underneath and has a wheel at each end) 49 Infs, Nth, esp NEng, NY, Ex; ME5, Concord ex; NY24, Front ex, hind ex. 1967–68 DARE Tape MI71, A buckboard has no body. It’s just slats from ex to ex [ɛks tu ɛks], from exle to exle [ˈɛksḷ tu ˈɛksḷ]; CA100, I come overland . . by horse ’n’ buggy stage. The roads were just one-way roads, and in the springtime the mud was up to the exes in many places.
