Talk:Poleaxe

message: I tend to agree with the OED here, but I'm glad to see a serious source provided for the idea that this word comes from "pole." However, it seems silly to trance the word all the way back to Latin palus: according to this theory, pollaxe came from pole+axe. Why give the etymology of the word pole? Especially if we're not going to give the etymology of the word "axe" too. --Iustinus 21:42, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Etymology

message: Maybe this should be combined with the Warhammer article?
:While I suppose some could consider the warhammer a type of pollaxe, I don't think it quite qualifies as a close enough to merit a combination. The pollaxe is somewhat more varied in construction than the hammer (almost making it a larger broad category) as the article states. Naturally, variance in structure (especially the length [4-6.5] of the haft] means variance in use. The closest overlap, I believe, comes in the longer warhammers used, which would still lack (potentially) a cutting blade, flukes, and the top "spear point". If anything, I would suggest moving the warhammer article into this one, as the pollaxe provides a larger blanket of physical properties, some of which fit the warhammer.Xiliquiern 19:54, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Combine with Warhammer?

message: Interesting. I have to admit, when I clicked this link, I half expected to find some neologism about cutting through surveys (poll + axe). I've always seen it as poleaxe, as a result of it's a polearm, not a pollarm. Weird. LordAmeth 23:24, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Pollaxe?

message: I removed the section: 
In the game Dynasty Warriors, the characther Xu Huang wields a large battle axe known as the "Marauder," and is easily identifiable by the white turban he wears in each release in the Dynasty Warriors series. His attacks are powerful, although slow, and his speed ranks in the below-average category, although his "Musou Attack" deals significant damage to any pursuing opponents.
as it's irrelevant to this; his weapon is a battle axe and described as such in the game and the Wikipedia entry, extremely oversized as Chinese fictional weaponry often is. --StarChaser Tyger 04:14, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dynasty Warriors 

message: If we define a poleaxe as a polearm with a relatively narrow axehead to pierce armour, then why do we show a pic of what I would call a halbard?
IceDragon64 (talk) 13:05, 18 March 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pic Poleaxe? 

message: A "poll" is a thick heavy back on an axe-blade. It can be used as a hammer but is principally intended to add weight.  Felling axes are rarely polled, carpenter axes may have flat backs for hammering but are not polled, splitting axes are often polled and splitting mauls are by definition polled.
"Polled" is a smith's term and can be used as a verb or descriptive adjective - "I polled the axe by upsetting it with a loose mandrel through the eye to keep the shape". End users may say "poll backed" meaning the same thing as polled (adjective).
A pole-axe is an axe blade mounted on an unusually long handle or "pole".  A pole-axe could be polled, but this would be very unusual, for the same reason most people wouldn't want a polled carpentry axe - adding weight behind the blade makes the tool or weapon less controllable and more fatiguing to employ.
In the pictures currently shown on the page, one is a halberd and the other looks like a war-hammer.  Neither is definitely a pollaxe, although a halberd is certainly a pole-axe.
Confusion of these terms is not recent.  Contradictory historical references are not difficult to find.  "Poll" is pronounced identically to "pole" and spelling wasn't standardized until Webster.
So, both etymologies may well be correct, and there's always going to be a problem with determining a canonical reference.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.75.253.48 (talk) 17:13, 2 October 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  pole-axe .vs. polled axe 

message: Can someone explain what is the difference between a poleaxe and a halberd? They seem to me to be two names with differing etymologies for the same weapon. 93.136.19.247 (talk) 01:26, 6 March 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pollaxe vs. halberd