A broad, single-edged blade, typically thirty to sixty-six centimetres long and under three millimetres thick, used as an agricultural implement much like a small axe. In tropical and subtropical regions it clears rainforest undergrowth and, in agriculture specifically, cuts standing crops such as sugarcane by hand. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
OriginTraces to Central America; the name may derive from the Spanish diminutive of macho, referring to sledgehammers, or from the Greek and Roman machaera for the falcata sword. As agricultural hand tools of this general shape long predate any single dated invention, the one solidly dated milestone the source supports is commercial manufacture: the Collins Company of Connecticut began making machetes in 1845, and its blades became so well known across Latin America that the tool itself was colloquially called un collin. 1 Partially Attested
Introduced YearThe source dates only the first commercial machetes of the Collins Company of Connecticut to 1845; the machete as a tool is far older, originating in Central America, so 1845 marks commercial manufacture and not invention. Connections
Associated With
manual sugarcane cutting with a machete is the traditional method the mechanized sugarcane harvester was built to replace, and still continues where mechanization is impractical
Sources
1. Machete (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationAgriculture subsection under Uses
used to cut through rainforest undergrowth and for agricultural purposes (e.g. cutting sugar cane)
Manufacture section, Collins Company paragraph
Its first machetes were sold in 1845 and became so famous that a machete was called un collin.
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