The Semispatha and the Saex

[Thomas V.]

I suppose what I am really seeking is advice about why the Roman semispatha came to be directly referred to as a saex in the later Carolingian period? If the original semispatha was simply a shorter version of the spatha and not a gladius by another name then why did it later become a different weapon? A seax and a short sword, to me, seem to be different weapons.

In the individual Germanic languages sax mainly means "knive" and "small sword" (cf. Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, Band 26, 2004, p. 539). So it's not suprising that culter ("knive") and semispathium ("small spatha") are among the Latin euqivalents for sahs (cf. Waffenbezeichnungen in althochdeutschen Glossen: Sprach- und kulturhistorische Analysen und Wörterbuch, 2013, p. 220).


EDIT

Isn't it more likely to be the other way around? It was called a 'sax' because Saxons used it? Simply because Saxon occurs much earlier in our sources than saex... But if there's a better idea of the etymology of either term I'd be interested to know!

The term seax stems from the Indo-European root *sÁk- ("to cut").