Search for: Horses
6881 Etymology dictionary, p. across (adv./prep.).3
… from horse-racing, in reference to a bet of the same amount of money on a horse to win, place, or show. To get (something) across "make (something) understood or appreciated …
6882 Etymology dictionary, p. act (v.).4
… a horse). Earlier it meant "acting in accordance with" a duty, expectation, or belief (1640s). To act out "behave anti-socially" (1974) is from psychiatric sense of "expressing …
6883 Etymology dictionary, p. adamant (n.).3
… , break (horses)," for which see tame (adj.). "But semantically, the etymology is rather strange," according to Beekes, who suggests it might be a foreign word altered …
6884 Etymology dictionary, p. adulation (n.).3
… valai "horse's tail"). The original notion would be "to wag the tail" like a fawning dog (compare Greek sainein "to wag the tail," also "to flatter;" also see wheedle ).
6885 Etymology dictionary, p. alfalfa (n.).2
… *aspa- "horse" (from PIE root *ekwo- "horse") + -sti- "food," from suffixed form of PIE root *ed- "to eat."
6886 Etymology dictionary, p. alight (v.).2
… a horse or vehicle, thus lightening it. Of aircraft (originally balloons) from 1786. Related: Alighted; alighting .
6887 Etymology dictionary, p. also-ran (n.).2
1896, originally in reference to horse-races, from the verbal phrase, from also + past tense of run (v.). Probably from the wording of the listings given to non-placing horses in race results.
6888 Etymology dictionary, p. amble (n.).2
"an easy walking gait (of a horse), the gait of a horse when both legs on one side are in motion at the same time," late 14c., from Old French amble, from ambler "go at a steady, easy pace" (see amble (v.)). Of persons by c. 1600.
6889 Etymology dictionary, p. amble (v.).2
… a horse does when it first lifts the two legs on one side and then the two on the other, early 14c., from Old French ambler, in reference to a horse or other quadruped …
6890 Etymology dictionary, p. ambler (n.).2
"a horse which ambles; a person who ambles," late 14c., agent noun from amble (v.).
6891 Etymology dictionary, p. amount (v.).2
… (a horse)," from Old French amonter "rise, go up; mean, signify," from amont (adv.) "upward, uphill," literally "to the mountain" (12c.), a contraction of the prepositional phrase …
6892 Etymology dictionary, p. Appaloosa.2
… of horses favored by Indian tribes in U.S. West, 1849, either from Opelousa (perhaps from Choctaw api losa "black body") in Louisiana, or from the name of the Palouse …
6893 Etymology dictionary, p. apple (n.).6
… -apple "horse dropping" is from 1942.
6894 Etymology dictionary, p. Arabian.2
c. 1300, adjective and noun; see Arab + -ian. As a prized type of horse, it is attested from 1660s. The Arabian bird was the phoenix.
6895 Etymology dictionary, p. Ascot.2
village near Windsor, Berkshire, literally "eastern cottage." The site of fashionable horse race meetings, hence its use attributively for clothes suitable for the event; especially a type of tie (1889).
6896 Etymology dictionary, p. ass (n.1).2
… the horse kind, but smaller and with long ears and a short mane, native to southwest Asia, Old English assa (Old Northumbrian assal, assald ) "he-ass." The English …
6897 Etymology dictionary, p. ass (n.2).2
… / cuss, horse / hoss, barse / bass, garsh / gash, parcel/passel ).
6898 Etymology dictionary, p. ass (n.2).6
… a horse (or mule ) is occasionally attested as a figure of ignorance from c. 1900.
6899 Etymology dictionary, p. astray (adv.).2
… a horse), lost," literally "on stray" (see stray (v.)). Figurative use is from late 14c.
6900 Etymology dictionary, p. Auriga.2
… a horse" (from os, genitive oris, "mouth;" see oral ) + agere "set in motion, drive, lead" (from PIE root *ag- "to drive, draw out or forth, move"). Its bright star is Capella .