axis: [14] Axis is at the centre of a complex web of ‘turning’ words. Besides its immediate source, Latin axis, there were Greek áxōn, Sanskrit ákshas, and a hypothetical Germanic *akhsō which produced Old English eax ‘axle’ as well as modern German achse ‘axle, shaft’ and Dutch as; and there could well be a connection with Latin agere (source of English act, agent, etc) in the sense ‘drive’.
Also related is an unrecorded Latin form *acslā, which produced āla ‘wing’ (source of English aileron and aisle); its diminutive was axilla ‘armpit’, from which English gets the adjective axillary [17] and the botanical term axil [18]. => aileron, aisle, axil
axis (n.)
1540s, "imaginary straight line around which a body (such as the Earth) rotates," from Latin axis "axle, pivot, axis of the earth or sky," from PIE *aks- "axis" (cognates: Old English eax, Old High German ahsa "axle;" Greek axon "axis, axle, wagon;" Sanskrit aksah "an axle, axis, beam of a balance;" Lithuanian aszis "axle"). Figurative sense in world history of "alliance between Germany and Italy" (later extended unetymologically to include Japan) is from 1936. Original reference was to a "Rome-Berlin axis" in central Europe. The word later was used in reference to a London-Washington axis (World War II) and a Moscow-Peking axis (early Cold War).
实用例句
1. Mars takes longer to revolve on its axis than the earth.
火星自转一周的时间比地球长。
来自《权威词典》
2. the daily rotation of the earth on its axis
地球每天的自转
来自《权威词典》
3. the vertical axis of the graph
图的纵轴
来自《权威词典》
4. The earth's axis is the line between the North and South Poles.
地轴是南北极之间的线.
来自《简明英汉词典》
5. Mars takes longer to revolve on its axis than the earth.
