hatchet [ME] English took over French hachette in the Middle Ages. It derives from hache ‘an axe’—see hash. To bury the hatchet [L17th], ‘end a quarrel or conflict’, refers to a Native American custom which involved burying a hatchet or tomahawk to mark the conclusion of a peace treaty between warring groups. The custom is described as early as 1680; the current sense of the phrase emerged around 70 years later. Since the 1940s a hatchet man has been somebody employed to carry out controversial or disagreeable tasks, such as dismissing people from their jobs or writing journalistic pieces to destroy a person’s reputation. The original hatchet man, in the USA during the late 19th century, was a hired Chinese assassin who carried a hatchet with the handle shortened, although the term had been used for someone who works with a hatchet, particularly an army pioneer, since the late 17th century.