machete
pronunciation
How to pronounce machete in British English:
UK [məˈʃeti]
How to pronounce machete in American English:
US [məˈʃɛti, -ˈtʃɛti]
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- Noun:
- a large heavy knife used in Central and South America as a weapon or for cutting vegetation
Word Origin
- machete (n.)
- 1590s (in pseudo-Spanish form macheto), from Spanish machete, probably a diminutive of macho "sledge hammer," alteration of mazo "club," which is probably [Barnhart] a dialectal variant of maza "mallet," from Vulgar Latin *mattea "war club" (see mace (n.1)). An alternative explanation traces macho to Latin marculus "a small hammer," diminutive of marcus "hammer," from a base parallel to that of Latin malleus (see mallet).
Example
- 1. The machete is the weapon of choice .
- 2. Besides , in many recent wars the old-fashioned machete was preferred to the gun .
- 3. Oh , and let 's not forget machete 's curvy sidekicks jessica alba and michelle rodriguez the former as an immigration officer , the latter as a gun-toting revolutionary .