Etymologically
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horse

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 19:39. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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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

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