colt
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English colt, from Old English colt, from Proto-Germanic *kultaz (“plump; stump; thick shape, bulb”), from Proto-Indo-European *gelt- (“something round, pregnant belly, child in the womb”), from *gel- (“to ball up, amass”). Cognate with Faroese koltur (“colt, foal”) Norwegian kult (“treestump”), Swedish kult (“young boar, boy, lad”). Related to child.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (UK) IPA(key): /kəʊlt/, [kɔʊlt], (also) /kɒlt/
- (US) IPA(key): /koʊlt/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -əʊlt
Noun
[edit]colt (plural colts)
- A young male horse.
- Coordinate term: filly
- 1857, Herman Melville, chapter XXII, in The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade:
- The petty vices of boys are like the innocent kicks of colts, as yet imperfectly broken.
- A young crane (bird).
- (figuratively) A youthful or inexperienced person; a novice.
- c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], line 38:
- Ay, that's a colt indeed, for he doth nothing but / talk of his horse, and he makes it a great appropriation to / his own good parts that he can shoe him himself.
- (cricket, slang) A professional cricketer during his first season.
- 1882, The Downside Review, volume 1, page 287:
- The bowling is more promising in the colts than in the eleven.
- (nautical, historical) A short piece of rope once used by petty officers as an instrument of punishment.
- (obsolete, slang) A weapon formed by slinging a small shot to the end of a somewhat stiff piece of rope.
- (biblical) A young camel or donkey.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
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References
[edit]- (weapon): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary
Verb
[edit]colt (third-person singular simple present colts, present participle colting, simple past and past participle colted)
- (obsolete, transitive) To horse; to get with young.
- 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv], line 133:
- Never talk on't: / She hath been colted by him.
- (obsolete, transitive) To befool.
- c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], line 36:
- What a plague mean ye to colt me thus?
- (intransitive) To frisk or frolic like a colt; to act licentiously or wantonly.
- 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC:
- They shook off their bridles and began to colt.
- (obsolete, slang, transitive) To haze (a new recruit), as by charging a new juryman a "fine" to be spent on alcoholic drink, or by striking the sole of his foot with a board, etc.
- 1849, The Lancet, page 53:
- We watched our opportunity, seized him, and, laying him across a chest, we colted him with a boot-jack until we nearly killed him, he at the time suffering from numerous boils in the nates; and for all this he obtained no redress!
- 1923, Notes and Queries, page 153:
- […] his first appearance the jury duly "colted" him.
Synonyms
[edit]- (to act licentiously or wantonly): See Thesaurus:harlotize
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- “colt”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- (to haze): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary
Further reading
[edit]Anagrams
[edit]French
[edit]Noun
[edit]colt m (plural colts)
- Colt (gun)
Further reading
[edit]- “colt”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Middle English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Old English colt, from Proto-Germanic *kultaz.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]colt (plural coltes)
Descendants
[edit]References
[edit]- “colt, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-08-12.
Old English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Proto-Germanic *kultaz (“plump; stump; thick shape, bulb”), from Proto-Indo-European *gelt- (“something round, pregnant belly, child in the womb”), from *gel- (“to ball up, amass”).
Noun
[edit]colt m
- colt (a juvenile horse)
Declension
[edit]Descendants
[edit]- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/əʊlt
- Rhymes:English/əʊlt/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- en:Cricket
- English slang
- en:Nautical
- English terms with historical senses
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:Bible
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- en:Baby animals
- en:Cranes (birds)
- en:Horses
- en:Male animals
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French masculine nouns
- Middle English terms inherited from Old English
- Middle English terms derived from Old English
- Middle English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Middle English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- Middle English derogatory terms
- Middle English terms with rare senses
- enm:Baby animals
- enm:Equids
- enm:Horses
- Old English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Old English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Old English lemmas
- Old English nouns
- Old English masculine nouns
- Old English masculine a-stem nouns
- ang:Baby animals
- ang:Horses