Hatchet

A hatchet (from the Old French hachete, a diminutive form of hache, 'axe' of Germanic origin) is a single-handed striking tool with a sharp blade on one side used to cut and split wood, and a hammerhead on the other side.

[1] Although hand axe and hatchet are often used interchangeably in contemporary usage, historically the nomenclature distinguishes two distinct classes of tools.

A hatchet is a short-handled construction trades tool with multipurpose head purposely designed for a given application.

For this reason, hatchet handles are generally straight so that users can rotate them in their hand to switch from one head feature to the other.

[3] "Hatchet" was used to describe a small battle axe in Middle English.