Etymologically
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colt

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /kəʊlt/, /kɒlt/[1]
  • US: /koʊlt/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English colt,[2][3] inherited from Old English colt (“young ass, young camel”),[4][5][6] a word of obscure or unknown origin.[4][7][8][9] The suggested cognates are Scandinavian: Swedish kult (“young boar, piglet; boy”) in Swedish dialects,[5][10][11] kull (“brood”) and Danish kuld (“offspring, brood”),[4][11][3] Norwegian kult (“stout person; block, stump”) in Norwegian dialects[10][12][13] and the Danish dialect word koltring (“lad”).[11][4] Barnhart and Etymonline derive them from Proto-Germanic *kultaz,[10][5] which Orel tentatively connects with Lithuanian guldýti (“to castrate”);[13] Holthausen and Merriam-Webster also compare Old Norse kjalta (“lap”),[12][14] and Merriam-Webster, Etymonline and Partridge relate the word to child.[14][5][15] Barnhart goes back to an Indo-European form meaning "fetus", from a root "to swell".[10] The OED notes that no related word appears in Icelandic.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The young of the ass, and in biblical translation of the camel: about 1000, in Ælfric's version of Genesis 32:15, where Jacob's gift includes thirty milch camels with their colts.[4][10][6][3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word covered the young of the horse, the ass or the camel.[2][15] It came to be used above all of the young male horse, the female being a filly;[5][16] Johnson (1755) explained it as a young horse, "used commonly for the male offspring of a horse, as foal for the female".[16] Already about 1225, in the Juliana, a colt was an inexperienced young person,[4][5] a sense that survives in sport, originally in cricket, for a young or junior player.[4][17] In the 16th century it was also used of a lively person (1594) and of a wanton (1584), and the verb colt meant to befool or cheat (1579–1640).[4] Chaucer already has the image of the colt's tooth, youthful desire in an old person.[5][18][4] Later senses include, in legal slang, a barrister attending a serjeant-at-law at his induction (1765), a third swarm of bees (1742), and in sailors' use a piece of knotted rope used for punishment (1780), whence the verb "to beat with a rope's end" (1732).[4][19][20] In thieves' slang of the early 17th century a colt was an innkeeper who supplied horses to highwaymen.[19]

Timeline

  • c. 1000 – the young of the ass or camel, in Ælfric.[4][10]
  • before 1225 – a young or inexperienced person.[4][5]
  • 1579 – verb, to cheat, befool (obsolete by 1640).[4]
  • 1594 – a lively person.[4]
  • 1608 – in thieves' slang, an innkeeper who supplies highwaymen with horses.[19]
  • 1732 – verb, to beat with a rope's end.[4]
  • 1742 – a third swarm of bees.[4][20]
  • 1765 – in legal slang, a barrister attending a new serjeant-at-law.[4]
  • 1780 – a piece of rope used for punishment at sea.[4][19]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A young male horse, especially one under four years old: The colt ran beside its mother in the paddock.[17][14][21]
  2. The young of a horse or of another equine such as a zebra or donkey.[14][4]
  3. An awkward or inexperienced young person; in sport, a young or inexperienced player or a member of a junior team.[17][4]
  4. (nautical) A short piece of knotted rope used as a weapon or for punishment.[4][19]
  5. (dialect) A third swarm of bees from a hive in one season.[4][20]
  6. (archaic) The young of a camel.[14][4]

Verb

  1. To beat with a colt or rope's end.[14][4][19]
  2. (obsolete, 1579–1640) To befool or cheat.[4][14]

Word family

  • coltish
  • coltsfoot
  • catch colt
  • old-field colt
  • woods colt

Usage notes

Colt, with a capital, is also the trademark name of a revolver or pistol, after the American inventor Samuel Colt (1814–1862); the OED records it from 1838.[4][17][5][3]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  10. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  11. ^ a b c Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  13. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  15. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  16. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  17. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  18. ^ Skeat, W. W., ed. (1894), The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. VI: Glossarial Index, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  19. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  20. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  21. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press