‘Many a good man went to the penny-a-week school with a sod of turf under his oxter’

James Joyce – Dubliners

 

What do you call that hollow space between your arm and torso? Most likely armpit or underarm. There is however, another, less frequent word which makes an appearance in Irish English, Scottish English and some northern English dialects: oxter.

A lot of words peculiar to Irish English and Scottish English often have Gaelic origins. As the Irish (gaelic) for armpit is ascaill, this might seem like a good place to start to find out more about the origins of oxter. It seems however, (after some research, i.e. heavy-duty Googling) that it can be traced back to Old English ōxta and is related to Latin axilla. Axilla is still used in anatomical terms to mean armpit (or the corresponding part in a bird or other animal) and is a diminutive of āla ‘wing’.… also related to axis, axle and other ‘turning’ words. Mind blown, I know.

Looking at a selection of modern European languages, the following cognates turn up (maybe oxter isn’t so strange after all…)

aisselle – French

axila – Spanish

ascella – Italian

axila – Portuguese

Achsel – German

oksel – Dutch

ascaill – Irish

Wait… it gets even more exciting…

Irish ascaill also happens to mean ‘avenue’, which makes me think that aisle should have a place in this discussion also… along with alley…although I imagine the latter is from French allée. For a more enlightened etymology of aisle, see here: https://www.etymonline.com/word/aisle

Inspired by my friend Sarah who introduced me to (and who we used to mock for saying) oxter.

 

References:
Oxford English Dictionary: en.oxforddictionaries.com

https://www.etymonline.com/word/aisle