The hatchet traveled from a Proto-Germanic cutting tool through Frankish into French, where it picked up its diminutive -ette suffix — literally meaning "little axe."
A small axe with a short handle, used for chopping wood or as a weapon, designed to be held in one hand.
From Old French hachette, diminutive of hache (axe), from Frankish *happja or *hāppia (axe, sickle), from Proto-Germanic *hapjō. Key roots: *hapjō (Proto-Germanic: "cutting tool, hook").
The phrase "bury the hatchet" comes from a genuine Native American peace ceremony in which warring parties would literally bury a hatchet or tomahawk in the ground to signify the end of hostilities. European colonists adopted both the practice and the phrase, which first appeared in English around 1680. The expression "hatchet job" — meaning a vicious attack — dates from the 1940s and originally referred to a hired assassin or enforcer called a "hatchet man" in 19th-century American slang