horse

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /hɔːs/, US /hɔːrs/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hors,^[2][3] inherited from Old English hors,^[4][2] from Proto-Germanic *hursą,^[4][2][5] of unknown origin.^[4][5] Some connect it with Proto-Indo-European *kers- (“to run”), the source of Latin currere (“to run”);^[4][2][6] Boutkan, quoted by Etymonline, prefers a loan from an Iranian (Sarmatian) language that was also borrowed into Uralic.^[4] It is cognate with Old Frisian hors, Old Saxon hros, Dutch ros and German Ross “steed”, and Old Norse hross.^[4][2][5] The verb is from late Old English horsian.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The animal: about 725, in Beowulf,^[2] and about 825 in the OED.^[7] The compound horsthegn “groom” is from about 700.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The usual Indo-European word for the horse, seen in Latin equus and Old English eoh, was lost in English, probably through a taboo on naming an animal so important in religion.^[4] Old English used horse as a collective plural, and horses has been the usual plural since the 17th century.^[4][7] Since the late 14th century the word has named devices on which something is mounted, as in sawhorse,^[4][5] Collectively, horse can mean cavalry, as in a regiment of horse.^[8][9] In compounds it often means “coarse, large”, as in horse chestnut (16th century) and horse laugh (18th century).^[5] The verb, “to provide with a horse”, is from 1013 in Old English;^[2] “to play jokes on” is by 1893, and horse around from 1928.^[4][2] Horses for courses is first recorded in 1891, as a familiar racing phrase,^[6] and straight from the horse's mouth from about 1913.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 700 – horsthegn, a groom.^[2]
• c. 725 – the animal.^[2]
• 1013 – Old English verb horsian.^[2]
• late 14th century – a frame or support.^[4]
• 1891 – horses for courses.^[6]
• 1893 – to tease, play jokes on.^[4]
• 1928 – horse around.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A large hoofed mammal with a long mane and tail, domesticated for riding and pulling loads.
2. An adult male horse; a stallion.
3. Cavalry; mounted soldiers.
4. A frame or support, as a sawhorse.
5. A padded apparatus for gymnastics; a vaulting horse.
6. (slang) Heroin.

Verb

1. To provide with a horse.
2. horse around: to play roughly or foolishly.

Word family

• horseless
• horselike
• unhorse
• horse around

Related words

• horseback
• horsepower
• courier
• current

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin