yearling

From Middle English yerling, yerlyng, equivalent to year + -ling. Cognate with Dutch jaarling (“yearling”), German Jährling (“yearling”).

"But is a plebe forbidden to stroll here?"
"If a plebe did have the brass to try it," replied Anstey slowly, "I reckon he would have to fight the whole yearling class in turn."

1910, H. Irving Hancock, Dick Prescott's Second Year at West Point, page 84:

As a yearling, he admitted to doing his part in ensuring that plebes knew their place at the Academy, […]

2014, Michael E. Haskew, West Point 1915 (page 57)

(US) A sophomore at West Point military academy.


bull ring

(US, horse racing) An unusually short track, typically six furlongs or less for one lap.


hame

From Middle English ham, from Old English hām (“home”). More at home.

Scottish and Northern English form of home


deacon

Inherited from Old English diacon, from Ecclesiastical Latin diāconus, from Ancient Greek διᾱ́κονος (diā́konos, “servant, minister”).

der

(Protestantism) Anglicanism: An ordained clergyperson usually serving a year prior to being ordained presbyter, though in some cases they remain a permanent deacon.

(US, animal husbandry) A male calf of a dairy breed, so called because they are usually deaconed (see below).

(Scotland) The chairman of an incorporated company.


deacon

en-verb

deacon (third-person singular simple present deacons, present participle deaconing, simple past and past participle deaconed)

deacons (present singular third-person)
deaconing (participle present)
deaconed (participle past)
deaconed (past)

(Christianity, music) For a choir leader to lead a hymn by speaking one or two lines at a time, which are then sung by the choir.


mickey

* (potato): From the common Irish name; compare murphy (“a potato”).
* (computer mouse resolution): An allusion to the cartoon character Mickey Mouse.

(Australia, informal) A well-known honeyeater, the Noisy Miner, Manorina melanocephala, of eastern Australia.


apar

The apar is mainly diurnal in its habits; and trusts for defence to its power of rolling itself into a ball, not dwelling in burrows like the members of the other genera.

1895, Richard Lydekker, The Royal Natural History, page 224:

The apars are noted, indeed, for their lively and restless manners.

1907, Ernest Ingersoll, The Life of Animals: The Mammals, page 478:

The three-banded armadillo, Tolypeutes matacus

обыкнови́нный шарово́й бронено́сец


Molossian

A member of the ancient Epirote ethnos which Olympias came from.


whippet

From whipped cream, since "whippits" are typically sold in the United States for use in making whipped cream.

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-whippet.wav

I was smoking hash from under glasses, sniffing glue, doing whippets, popping speed, smoking pot, dropping acid, and occasionally shooting dope.

2004, Sandra P. Riggin, Forbidden Memories: A Journey of Healing, →ISBN:

(slang) A cartridge of nitrous oxide (laughing gas), used as a recreational inhalant drug.


dubb

From Arabic دُبّ (dubb, “bear”). The Anglicization appears only rarely or ad hoc. One Richard Pockocke in 1738 reported that the dubber was seen only rarely in Egypt.

The Eurasian brown bear Ursus arctos syriacus.


bossy

Diminutive of dialectal English boss, as used in the term boss-calf (which, like buss-calf, is a variant form of boose-calf, a calf kept in a boose (“stall”)).

A week before, while riding the prairies, Raidler had come upon a sick and weakling calf deserted and bawling. Without dismounting he had reached and slung the distressed bossy across his saddle, and dropped it at the ranch for the boys to attend to.

1903 February, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Hygeia at the Solito”, in Everybody’s Magazine, volume VIII, number 2, New York, N.Y.: John Wanamaker, →ISSN, page 174, column 1:


goral

Likely an early borrowing from Nepali घोरल (ghoral, “Himalayan goral”) or a related language.

The goral has a wide distribution, from the Indus Kohistan region in the western Himalaya in Pakistan, across the eastern Himalaya, Myanmar, Thailand, China and in a few scattered areas in South Korea, North Korea, eastern Russia and the adjoining regions of China.

2004, A. J. T. Johnsingh, On Jim Corbett's Trail and Other Tales from Tree-tops, page 62:

The gorals of Shanxi, sometimes separated as a taxon vidianus, fall into the range of N. griseus.

2011, Colin Groves, Peter Grubb, Ungulate Taxonomy, page 251:

The goral is a ruminant (cud chewer) closely related to the serow, but it is distinguished from the serow by peculiarities in its skull form as well as by its smaller size, shorter horns, and absence of conspicuous preorbital glands.

2011, John P. Rafferty, Grazers, page 145:

A type of Asian ungulate ruminant, now defined as any of the four species of the genus Naemorhedus.


camelopard

→ Hawaiian: kamelopaki

Learned borrowing from Latin camēlopardalis, from Ancient Greek καμηλοπάρδαλις (kamēlopárdalis, “giraffe”).

der

καμηλοπάρδαλις

Alternative form: cameleopard


wah

onom

Imitative


hound dog

You ain't nothin' but a hound dog
Cryin' all the time.
You ain't nothin' but a hound dog
Cryin' all the time.
Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit
And you ain't no friend of mine.

1956, “Hound Dog”, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (revised by Elvis Presley) (lyrics), performed by Elvis Presley:

(Southern US, dialectal) Any hound, especially the bloodhound.


checkrein

A strap used to keep horses' heads high, fashionable in Victorian England but painful and damaging to horses' necks.


Bali tiger

Panthera tigris sondaica
Panthera tigris sondaica#Translingual

A species of tiger, Panthera tigris sondaica, that became extinct in the 1930s.


kha-nyou

A rodent species of the Khammouan region of Laos, Laonastes aenigmamus, first described in 2005


rodeo

/ˈɹəʊ.di.əʊ/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-rodeo.wav

From Spanish rodeo, from rodear (“to surround”), which refers to a cattle roundup.

(sports) A North American sport involving skills with horses, cows and other livestock.


munchkin

en:Munchkin (disambiguation)
munchkin
munchkin (cat)

Coined by American author L. Frank Baum in 1900 in his novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Perhaps reflective of German Mensch or munch + -kin. Compare Low German Menschken and Low German Minschken

coinage

Alternative form of Munchkin (“domestic cat breed”)

(informal) A pet name one uses for something adorable like a pet, child, or a romantic partner


morse

From Middle French mors, from Latin morsus (“bite; clasp”), from mordere (“to bite”).

The morse bore a seraph's head in gold-thread raised work.

1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter XI, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London, New York, N.Y., Melbourne, Vic.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC:

A clasp or fastening used to fasten a cope in the front, usually decorative.


gun dog

Any of various breeds of dog used by hunters to find, flush out and retrieve birds and other game; an individual of such a breed.


Jack Russell terrier

en-noun

Jack Russell terrier (plural Jack Russell terriers)

A type of small dog, usually brown and white in color, often used by farmers for rodent control.


golden hamster

Mesocricetus auratus
Mesocricetus auratus#Translingual

A small rodent of species Mesocricetus auratus, popular as a pet and used for scientific research.


Pekingese

Pekingese (plural Pekingeses or Pekingese)

Pekingese A Pekingese dog (canonical)
Pekingeses (plural)
Pekingese (plural)

From Peking + -ese; Peking is the Postal Map romanization of Beijing.


loris

From French loris, reportedly from obsolete Dutch loeris (“simpleton”).

If the stairs allow such room for thought it’s because Trudy is taking them at the pace of the slowest loris.

2016, Ian McEwan, Nutshell, Vintage, page 135:

Any of several small, slow-moving primates, of the family Lorisidae, found in India and southeast Asia.


mandrill

From man + drill (“Mandrillus leucophaeus”).

For the Mandrills live in society, and their bands are so powerful in point of numbers, and so crafty in point of management, that they are about as formidable neighbours as could be imagined.

1865, John George Wood, The Illustrated Natural History: Mammalia, George Routledge and Sons, page 76:

In both mandrills and drills, males have long muzzles with pronounced maxillary ridges and long tooth rows. Like baboons, mandrills and drills have forelimbs and hindlimbs of nearly equal length.

1999, John G. Fleagle, Primate Adaptation and Evolution, 2nd edition, Elsevier (Academic Press), page 200:

Mandrills occur in Gabon, Congo, Rio Muni and in Cameroon, to the south of the Sanaga River.

2003, Alan Dixson, Nancy Harvey, Marilyn Patton, Joanna Setchell, “2: Behaviour and reproduction”, in William V. Holt, Amanda R. Pickard, John C. Rodger, David E. Wildt, editors, Reproductive Science and Integrated Conservation, Cambridge University Press, page 26:

Mandrillus sphinx
Mandrillus sphinx#Translingual

A primate, Mandrillus sphinx, with a colorful face and rump.


gelada

Any of species Theropithecus gelada of Old World monkeys, distinguished from baboons by the bright patch of skin on their chests.


gray langur

An Old World monkey endemic to the Indian subcontinent, Semnopithecus entellus, the only species in its genus, gray in color, with a black face.


douc

Borrowed from Muong dộc, probably via French.

A species of colobine Old World monkey, making up the genus Pygathrix.


lutung

Any of a group of Old World monkeys, making up the genus Trachypithecus, with a rather slim build and a long tail


surili

A small Old World monkey of the genus Presbytis, unlike other langurs in having bulges above the eyes.


grivet

An Old World monkey, Chlorocebus aethiops, with long white tufts of hair along the sides of the face.


lunge

From French allonge, from Old French alonge, from alongier, from Vulgar Latin *allongare, from ad + Late Latin longare, from Latin longus. Doublet of allonge.

A long rope or flat web line, more commonly referred to as a lunge line, approximately 20–30 feet long, attached to the bridle, lungeing cavesson, or halter of a horse and used to control the animal while lungeing.

An exercise performed by stepping forward one leg while kneeling with the other leg, then returning to a standing position.


bradoon

A type of snaffle bit, with small rings, usually used on a double bridle in conjunction with a curb bit.


double bridle

(equestrianism) A Weymouth bridle, which uses both a bradoon, held by a sliphead, and a curb bit, and is used with two reins.


curb bit

(equestrianism) A type of bit used on a bridle, which works by leverage and has shanks and a curb chain.


lunge line

(British) A rope-like piece of equipment, usually 20 feet or longer in length, attached to the bridle, lungeing cavesson, or halter of a horse to provide control while lungeing.


potto

From a West African language; compare Akan apɔsɔ.

The forest hangs round them like a theater curtain, mist rising from the water, half-drowned things – jackals, monkeys, pottos, bushpigs – wading along with them, looking dazed and bearish.

1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 147:

A small primate of the genus Perodicticus, native to the tropical rainforests of Africa.


beluga

Borrowed from Russian белу́га (belúga), from бе́лый (bélyj, “white”).
In modern standard Russian, белу́га (belúga) denotes the fish Huso huso only, while белу́ха (belúxa) denotes the cetacean.

Delphinapterus leucas
Delphinapterus leucas#Translingual

A cetacean, Delphinapterus leucas, found in the Arctic Ocean.

A fish, Huso huso, that is a source of caviar, which is found in the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.


galago

Scientific Latin / translingual Galago (as a genus name), probably from Wolof golo (“monkey”).

From the trees comes the doleful cry of the black-faced dioch, and the weary rustle of galagos creeping back to their nests after a meticulous night's prowl.

1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 146:

Any of several species of small, nocturnal and arboreal African primates, of the family Galagidae, with a catlike head and very large, translucent eyes.


retriever

A type of gun dog that retrieves game for a hunter.


greyhound

From Old English grīġhund, from a cognate or borrowing of Old Norse grøy (“bitch”) (whence Icelandic grey, thus not related to the colour grey) plus hund (“hound”). Altered by folk etymology to appear to be grey + hound.

Her young heart was full of love; and a world of kindly feelings were wasted on her delicate greyhound, her bright winged birds, and her favourite flowers.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 127:

A lean breed of dog used in hunting and racing.


mala

From Western Desert Language, as Pitjantjatjara mala.

A species of hare-wallaby, Lagorchestes hirsutus, of arid Australia.


breastplate

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-breastplate.wav

From Middle English brestplate, equivalent to breast + plate. Displaced Old English brēostbeorg.

(Judaism) An embroidered square of linen worn on the breast of the Jewish high priest, bearing twelve precious stones, each inscribed with the name of one of the tribes of Israel.


anteater

Any of some other not closely related species that feed with ants, including pangolin (scaly anteater), echidna (spiny anteater), aardvark and numbat (banded anteater).


cat food

cat food (usually uncountable, plural cat foods)

Coordinate term: dog food

The cat ate the cat food.

A type of food specially formulated for the feeding of cats, typically composed of processed grain and meat byproducts as dry food or canned fish or meat as wet food.

القط الغذاء

type of food formulated for the feeding of cats


husky

Shortening of husky dog, where husky is ultimately from the same Old Montagnais root as Eskimo.

Any of several breeds of dogs used as sled dogs.

хъски

any of several breeds of dogs used as sled dogs


hind

hind (countable and uncountable, plural hind or hinds)

Wikispecies
From Middle English hind, hinde, hynde, from Old English hind, Proto-West Germanic *hindu, from Proto-Germanic *hindō, *hindiz, from a formation on Proto-Indo-European *ḱem- (“hornless”). Cognate with Dutch hinde, German Hinde, Danish hind.

A spotted food fish of the genus Epinephelus.


desert rat

gundi

one of various mouselike desert dwellers

One of various mouselike rodents species inhabiting deserts:

A kangaroo rat (genus Dipodomys) from North America

A jerboa, including those of species Jaculus orientalis and Jaculus jaculus (lesser Egyptian jerboa), which inhabit the desert regions of North Africa.

A British or Australian soldier who served in North Africa with the British 7th Armoured Division in 1941-42.

aavikkorotta

British or Australian soldier of 7th Armoured Division


Dobermann

Borrowed from German Dobermann, from the name of Karl Friedrich Louis Dobermann, who first developed this breed. Dobermann was born "Tobermann." Tobermann is derived from "Tober" (an Ashkenazic variant of Tauber) plus a suffixal -mann. Tauber is both the name of a river in Germany, and the German word for a pigeon (variant of Taube (“dove, pigeon”), formed [perhaps] to distinguish meaning.) The former is derived from Celtic, the latter from Proto-Germanic. See Dover, dove.

A large breed of guard dog bred in Germany.


angora

angora (countable and uncountable, plural angoras)

From the name of the city of Ankara in Turkey, from Ancient Greek ἄγκυρα (ánkura, “anchor”).


pull up

en-verb

pull up (third-person singular simple present pulls up, present participle pulling up, simple past and past participle pulled up)

pulls up (present singular third-person)
pulling up (participle present)
pulled up (participle past)
pulled up (past)

In this May 20, 2006, Barbaro is steadied[sic, "by" is missing] a track worker as jockey Edgar Prado looks on after he pulled up the horse with a fractured right rear leg during the 131st running of the Preakness Stakes horse race at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.

2016 May 19, Paul Vigna, “Barbaro's ill-fated run 10 years ago in the Preakness: A look back”, in PennLive:

(transitive, horse racing) To intentionally take a racehorse out of a race, usually as a result of the horse's tiredness or concerns of potential injury (in reference to the act of pulling up the reins).


squirrel monkey

en-noun

squirrel monkey (plural squirrel monkeys)

(zoology, primatology) Any of several small New World monkeys, of the genus Saimiri, that live in Central and South America.


sitatunga

/sɪtəˈtʌŋɡə/

‘There's plenty here,’ he grunts, nodding at the bloated carcasses of two hartebeests and a sitatunga.

1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 148:


talapoin

From French talapoin, from Portuguese talapão, from Mon တၠဳ ပိုဲ (tloe poi, “our lord”).

A monkey from one of two species of Old World monkeys, of the genus Miopithecus, distinguished by a short-snouted head with a hairless face.


guenon

An Old World monkey of the genus Cercopithecus.


bare-eared squirrel monkey

bare-eared squirrel monkey (plural bare-eared squirrel monkeys)

A squirrel monkey endemic to Brazil, Saimiri ustus.


whaling

whaling (countable and uncountable, plural whalings)


terrier

Borrowed from Middle French, from Old French chien terrier (“terrier dog”), from chien (“dog”) + Old French terrier (“of earth”, adjective), from Medieval Latin terrarius (“of earth”), from Latin terra (“earth”).

der

A dog from a group of small, lively breeds, originally bred for the hunting of burrowing prey such as rats, rabbits, foxes, and even otters; this original function is reflected in some of their names (e.g. rat terrier).


puffer

From puff + -er.
The cellular automata definition is a clipping of puffer train.


shoo-in

From a sense of the verb shoo, where racehorses would fall back and allow a chosen rider to win a fixed race. See 1910 quotation.

Little Pete was a member of the delegation that were in on the "shoo" in the third race. He had several commissioners placing his coin on Model. If the race was to have been a "shoo-in" for Model, there must have been one or two owners that were not in on the deal.

1895, “Pointers from the Paddock”, in The San Francisco Call:

Most of the "regulars" are deeply suspicious of all steeplechase races of late years, and, whenever the favorite falls at one of the obstacles and a long priced leaper wins the race, they loudly call the race a "shoo-in" (a fixed affair, that is, in which the steeplechase racers have arranged to drop to the rear of the "meant" jumper and "shoo" him to the wire, they previously, of course, having got their money down on the horse thus generously treated).

1910, “Vernacular of the Race Track”, in New-York Tribune:

[it was] wondered whether Chris Chenery's Virginia flyer would be a shoo-in for the Belmont Stakes […]

(horse racing) The winner of a fixed race, a fixed race.


take the field

en-verb

take the field (third-person singular simple present takes the field, present participle taking the field, simple past took the field, past participle taken the field)

takes the field (present singular third-person)
taking the field (participle present)
took the field (past)
taken the field (participle past)

(horse racing) To stake one's money against the favourite, taking the chances of the field against the chance of one horse.


golden mole

Any of several small, insectivorous burrowing mammals of the family Chrysochloridae, native to southern Africa.


tenrec

From French tanrec, from Malagasy tàndraka or trandraka related to Malay landak (“porcupine”); English from 18th century.

Any of several diverse small mammals, of the family Tenrecidae, many native to Madagascar.


elephant shrew

For many years elephant shrews, represented here by the rock elephant shrew, were placed wifhin the Order Insectivora. Today they are separated from that group by virtue of their long snouts, heibivotous dentition and different digestive tract.

1997, M. G. L. Mills, Lex Hes, The Complete Book of Southern African Mammals, page 62:

The recognition of elephant shrews as a distinct clade of eutherian mammals and the discovery of their earliest representatives has not simplified the problem of their higher-order affinities.

2007, Patricia A. Holroyd, Jason C. Mussell, “6: Macroscelidea and Tubulidentata”, in Kenneth D. Rose, J. David Archibald, editors, The Rise of Placental Mammals: Origins and Relationships of the Major Extant Clades, page 73:

Like treeshrews, elephant shrews are active for half of the twenty-four-hour day, implying that this type of general invertebrate gleaning requires long foraging times in both families. Certain elephant shrews are nearly entirely insectivorous (95-100%; Rathbun 1979), and they are cursorial, not scansorial, so they are in some ecological aspects quite unlike treeshrews.

2011, Louise H Emmons, Tupai: A Field Study of Bornean Treeshrews, page 221:

Any of several small, insectivorous long-nosed mammals, of the order Macroscelidea, native to Africa; more closely related to elephants than to true shrews.


teg

First used to contemptuously refer to a woman, then later applied to a ewe in her second year. Possibly borrowed from Swedish tacka (“ewe”).

One Stringor, that brought a tegg from Wresill.

(UK, dialectal, dated) A sheep (originally a ewe) in its second year, or from the time it is weaned until it is first shorn.


maha

The natives, who designate the latter as the Maha, or Great Wanderu, to distinguish it from the Kala, or Black one […]

1896, Richard Lydekker, A Geographical History of Mammals:

(archaic) A kind of monkey; the wanderoo.


colugo

Colugos, our closest living non-primate relatives, are able to glide as much as 150 metres (more than 490 feet) between trees.

2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, Granta Books, published 2013, page 258:

An arboreal gliding mammal of the order Dermoptera native to Southeast Asia.


flying lemur

Flying lemurs do not fly (they glide) and are not lemurs: the nature of their relationship to primates (and to bats and treeshrews, with which they also share characteristics) is the subject of ongoing debate and research.

A colugo (family spp.), having membranes between the front and hind legs similar to those of flying squirrels.


racehorse

They were bosker horses. Until I went to work for Bill I didn't know how good racehorses are.

1946, Frank Sargeson, That Summer, and Other Stories, page 31:

Long before you see the lean, handsome heads peering mildly over the half-doors of the loose boxes, you know that East Ilsley's business is training racehorses.

1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 164:

Picture yourself betting on a racehorse, seeing the animal take the lead, and then watching the horse suddenly stop because it pulled a muscle not properly warmed up by its trainers. You’d get pretty heated under the collar, and that’s not the kind of warm-up that’s very beneficial. Horseflesh and humanflesh alike need to be warmed up before strenuous activity.

1984, Steven Adcock, “[Breathing and Form, Warm-up, and Freebody Exercises] Warm-up”, in Steve Adcock’s Partner Workout: A Two-Person Exercise System that Provides Aerobic Benefits, Strength Building, and Flexibility Techniques Without the Need for a Gym or a Single Piece of Equipment, New York, N.Y.: M. Evans and Company, Inc., →ISBN, page 27:

Clearly, it’s that Secretariat is overrated. OK, exhale. I’m not trolling you. I’m just being extremely nitty about the marginal shades of “really, really great.” By “overrated,” I certainly don’t mean to imply that Secretariat isn’t the best 3-year-old American racehorse in history – he is.

2015 June 12, Benjamin Morris, “Where Have You Gone, Secretariat?”, in FiveThirtyEight, archived from the original on 2016-12-20:


fops

Knife set, Hoover, soaps, leatherman, lego and....... FOPS KIGU! My mother knows something.

2013 December 25, @touchtheboop, Twitter:

Back to school tomorrow! Little fops in a big world~ <3

Ugh what a cute FOPS!

2019 December 30, @HellaHoundAD, Twitter:

saw a fops on my walk again

2021 October 13, @MythicalRedFox, Twitter:

Henmlooo
It's your good morning fops 💜🦊💜

Your Fursona vs The Animal they're based on.
Fops 🦊🧡

2024 April 25, @Fox_Den_Of_Sin, Twitter:

(Internet slang, furry fandom, childish, endearing) A fox.


bullock

bullock (third-person singular simple present bullocks, present participle bullocking, simple past and past participle bullocked)

bullocks (present singular third-person)
bullocking (participle present)
bullocked (participle past)
bullocked (past)

From Middle English bullok, from Old English bulluc, from Proto-West Germanic *bulluk, corresponding to bull + -ock (diminutive suffix). Compare Old Dutch bullok (“bullock”).

Yes, you villain, you have defiled my own bed, you have; and then you have charged me with bullocking you into owning the truth.

1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 47:

So you never knew when you were gonna fall foul of a furious bullocking. So it became a case of bullocking management, basically. You know, how can I stave off the stress and the bullying for another few days.

2017, podcast "Untold - The Daniel Morgan Murder", episode "Master of the Dark Arts", from minute 11:18


Friesian

[...] the more expensive and creamier Jersey or South Devon milk, for example, is kept apart from Friesian milk, with its low butter content.

1959 March, R. C. Riley, “Home with the Milk”, in Trains Illustrated, page 155:

A breed of black and white dairy cattle; any indiviual cow of that breed.


mog

Get that mog out of here!

The more I hear about Larry the Downing Street cat, the more his story becomes an allegory for our time. As previously reported, the reputation of this mog was trashed by Downing Street spin doctors after he was brought in to clear the Prime Minister’s workplace of mice in 2011.

2013 October 18, Andy McSmith, “Andy McSmith's Diary: Even Larry the cat is not safe from factions in Downing Street”, in The Independent, London: Independent Digital News & Media Ltd, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-10-15:

Ulysses the cat is the real breakout star of the Coen brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis. He's not the first feline scene-stealer, though - here are ten other great cats in film (animated mogs excluded)

2014 January 24, Fiona Wilson, The Times, London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-07-09:

A few months before she died, Winefride had started setting food out for a brindled mog named Sally who lived in their neighborhood. She was always feeding local cats, but she especially loved this mog, and eventually, Sally grew enormous.

2016, Bill Broun, Night of the Animals, New York, N.Y.: Ecco, →ISBN, page 172:

They two gorgeous mogs even have their own teddy bear and blanket to make their snuggling.

2017 June 6, Luke Barnes, “Sleeping cuties! Adorable brother and sister kittens can't sleep unless they cosy up together in bed”, in The Daily Mail, London: DMG Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-12-21:

Many pet owners have taken up cat-walking in recent years, encouraged by others on social media and by the growing range of outdoorsy cat kit on offer. But for most mogs, the RSPCA suggests, "an indoor environment with plenty of opportunities to be active and mentally stimulated is likely to be more beneficial for the cat's welfare than walking them on a lead."

2017 August 14, Tim Walker, “Should you take your cat out on a lead?”, in The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-10-05:


Cro-Magnon

From French Cro-Magnon, from Occitan Cròs-Manhon.
Named after Abri de Cro-Magnon, a rock shelter in the commune of Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil, Dordogne, France, where the first skeletons were found in 1868.

The rock shelter in Les Eyzies, France, where the first Cro-Magnon Man specimens were found.


Cro-Magnon

en-noun

Cro-Magnon (plural Cro-Magnons or Cro-Magnon)

Cro-Magnons (plural)
Cro-Magnon (plural)

The Cro-Magnons may have been one important step beyond the Neanderthals in social organization.[…]That the Cro-Magnons and the Neanderthals encountered each other is probable. There seems to be no more than a five-thousand-year interval between the general occupation of home sites by the Neanderthals and their replacement by Cro-Magnon tools and fossils.

1994, Seymour W. Itzkoff, The Decline of Intelligence in America: A Strategy for National Renewal, Greenwood Publishing Group (Praeger Publishers), page 14:

The Cro Magnon came to live in Europe around forty thousand years ago and most educated people have heard of them. The Cro Magnon are the ones who created the remarkable cave paintings found in southern France and Spain at Lascaux and Altamira.

2006, Lyndall Baker Landauer, The Learning Pool: Basic Science Everyone Needs to Know, Xlibris, page 85:

In addition, the latest evidence suggests that the "agricultural revolution" occurred sometime during the second half of the Cro-Magnon era. Anatomically, the Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon brains were approximately the same overall size.

2009, Anthony Scioli, Henry B. Biller, Hope in the Age of Anxiety, Oxford University Press, page 44:

(archaeology) The earliest known form of modern human (Homo sapiens) in Europe, dating from the late Paleolithic.

кроманьо́нец

earliest known form of modern human, in Europe

(derogatory) A backward and stupid person, a knuckle-dragger or troglodyte.


aurochs

aurochs (plural aurochs or aurochses or aurochsen)

aurochs (plural)
aurochses (plural)
aurochsen (plural)

Borrowed from German Aurochs, an early variant of Auerochse, from Middle High German ūrochse (“aurochs”), from Old High German ūrohso (“aurochs”), a compound consisting of ūro (“aurochs”) (from Proto-Germanic *ūraz, *ūrô (“aurochs”)) + ohso (“ox”). Akin to Old English ūr (“aurochs”), Old Norse úrr (“aurochs”), Middle Low German ūrosse (“aurochs”), Old English oxa (“ox”). More at ox.

Bos primigenius
Bos primigenius#Translingual

An extinct European mammal, Bos primigenius, the ancestor of domestic cattle.


straddle

en-verb

straddle (third-person singular simple present straddles, present participle straddling, simple past and past participle straddled)

straddles (present singular third-person)
straddling (participle present)
straddled (participle past)
straddled (past)

As a verb, attested since the 1560s. Most likely, an alteration of dialectal striddle. The noun is first attested in the 1610s.

Wanting to please both sides, he straddled the issue.

(transitive) To consider or favor two apparently opposite sides; to be noncommittal.

tasapainoilla

to consider or favor two apparently opposite sides

(poker) To place a voluntary raise prior to receiving cards (only by the first player after the blinds).


straddle

(finance) An investment strategy involving simultaneous trade with put and call options on the same security at the same strike price, giving a non-directional position sensitive to volatility.

(poker) A voluntary raise made prior to receiving cards by the first player after the blinds.

sokkokorotus

poker: raise made prior to receiving cards


schnauzer

A dog of a particular breed originating in Germany.


brach

Originally in plural, from Old French brachez, plural of brachet, a diminutive of Occitan brac, from Frankish. Cognate to the German Bracke. More at brachet.

FOOL: Truth's a dog that must to kennel; he must be whipped out, when Lady, the brach, may stand by the fire and stink.

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], lines 109-111:

Mastiffe, Grey-hound, Mongrill, Grim, / Hound or Spaniell, Brache, or Hym […].

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vi]:

A sow-pig by chance sucked a brach, and when she was grown, “would miraculously hunt all manner of deer, and that as well, or rather better than any ordinary hound.”

(archaic) A hound; especially a female hound used for hunting, a bitch hound.


lambkin

A lambkin’s snowy fleece

1781, Richard Hole, Homer's Hymn to Ceres, Exeter: B. Thorn & Son, p. 38

There might ye ſee the pioney ſpread vvide, / The full-blovvn roſe, the ſhepherd and his laſs, / Lap-dog and lambkin vvith black ſtaring eyes, / And parrots vvith tvvin cherries in their beak.

1785, William Cowper, “Book I. The Sofa.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, page 3:

Let vs condoll the knight: for lamkins vve vvill liue.

1599 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Cronicle History of Henry the Fift, […] (First Quarto), London: […] Thomas Creede, for Tho[mas] Millington, and Iohn Busby […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], signature B2, verso:

She has no real cognisance, dear lambkin, of anything at all.

1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, page 28:


lambskin

en-noun

lambskin (countable and uncountable, plural lambskins)

The skin of a very young sheep, especially prepared with the fleece still attached. A very fine form of leather.


Amami rabbit

Pentalagus furnessi, a dark-furred, nocturnal rabbit found on the islands of Amami Ōshima and Tokunoshima in southern Japan.


Old World monkey

Old World monkey (plural Old World monkeys)

Coordinate term: New World monkey

A member of a group of primates, falling in the superfamily Cercopithecoidea in the clade Catarrhini.

舊世界猴 /旧世界猴

primates falling in the superfamily Cercopithecoidea


humpback

[…] Tom’s more specific and kindly impressions gradually melted into the old background of suspicion and dislike toward him as a queer fellow, a humpback, and the son of a rogue.

1860, George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, Book 2, Chapter 6:

[…] I stared up at the raw spots on his cheek and thought, there is no safety anywhere: a humpback, a cripple—they all have the trigger that sets love off.

1951, Graham Greene, The End of the Affair, Penguin, published 1975, Book 2, Chapter 7, p. 81:

(derogatory, now offensive) A person with a humpback; a person who suffers from kyphosis.


humpback

en-verb

humpback (third-person singular simple present humpbacks, present participle humpbacking, simple past and past participle humpbacked)

humpbacks (present singular third-person)
humpbacking (participle present)
humpbacked (participle past)
humpbacked (past)

The captain of the James Rodgers […] was an old hand at humpbacking […]

1895, Charles Nordhoff, chapter 10, in Whaling and Fishing, New York: Dodd, Mead, page 191:

[…] the Alice Knowles […] did her whaling in the south Atlantic, by turns humpbacking off the African coast and cruising around Tristan in season.

1953, Emma Mayhew Whiting, Henry Beetle Hough, chapter 16, in Whaling Wives, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 240:


poitrine

From French poitrine or a Middle or Old French predecessor.

2018, Jerome Bixby, Devilish Tales: A collection of droll, teasing and very wicked fantasies, Digital Parchment Press
Full red lips and a patrician nose, and a delicately formed but ample poitrine that curled Pierre's hands into iron hooks beneath the counter. "Forgive me, kind sir," she said, in a voice like music in a bedroom, […]

Her bodices fully covered her ample poitrine right up to her nonexistent neck.

2008, Leslie Carroll, Royal Affairs: A Lusty Romp Through the Extramarital Adventures That Rocked the British Monarchy, Penguin, →ISBN, page 326:

(She points to her ID badge, situated on her ample poitrine, allowing my next unforgivable remark.) DC: Men don't have those.

2010, Dick Cavett, Talk Show: Confrontations, Pointed Commentary, and Off-Screen Secrets, Macmillan, →ISBN:


quinella

From American Spanish quiniela (“sporting bet or pool”); US from 1942.

bor

1954, Michigan Department of State Compilation Commission, 1954 Michigan Administrative Code, page 38,
All tickets on the quinella will be calculated in an entirely separate pool.

A few tracks offer exactas and quinallas on the same races.

1989, Charles S. Romanelli, How to Make Money in One Day at the Track, page 166:

The track quinella paid $38.00 for a $2 wager, the track exacta paid $70.60 for a $2 wager.

2004, Jim Kilby, Jim Fox, Anthony F. Lucas, Casino Operations Management, page 355:

(gambling, horse racing) A form of bet in which the bettor predicts the first two finishers in a race, without concern for the order of finishing.


calico

en-noun

calico (countable and uncountable, plural calicos or calicoes)

From Calicut, from where the cloth was originally exported, from Malayalam കോഴിക്കോട് (kōḻikkōṭŭ, “Kozhikode”), from കോഴി (kōḻi, “palace”) + കോട് (kōṭŭ, “fortified palace”).

af

One of them, a calico whose half-grown kittens he just fed, slow-blinks at him, an affectionate gesture.

2022, N. K. Jemisin, The World We Make, Orbit, page 111:


pashmina

en-noun

pashmina (countable and uncountable, plural pashminas)

From Persian پشمینه (pašmine). Compare پشمین (pašmin).

Cashmere: the fine wool that grows under the hair of this goat.


bird dog

en-verb

bird dog (third-person singular simple present bird dogs, present participle bird dogging, simple past and past participle bird dogged)

bird dogs (present singular third-person)
bird dogging (participle present)
bird dogged (participle past)
bird dogged (past)


drawmaster

(horse racing) The person who determines the post positions for races.


horsemanship

en-noun

horsemanship (usually uncountable, plural horsemanships)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-horsemanship.wav

The retired cowboy showed off his horsemanship by doing tricks in the saddle.

The skill of horseriding, and sometimes of training and managing horses.


grizzly

en-adj

grizzly (comparative grizzlier, superlative grizzliest)

grizzlier (comparative)
grizzliest (superlative)


Limousin

Borrowed from French Limousin, from Latin Lemovicinus, adjective form of Lemovices, name of a Gaulish tribe in central France, most likely a reference to their elm bows and spears, of same ultimate origin as elm.

A former region in France; since 2016, part of the region of New Aquitaine.


Île-de-France

A domestic sheep breed originally from the region.


clapmatch

Borrowed from Dutch klapmuts (“hooded seal, hat with ear-flaps”).


hooded seal

An arctic seal, Cystophora cristata, notable for the fleshy bulge on its forehead and nose.


topi

An antelope of the species Damaliscus korrigum syn. Damaliscus lunatus.


blue heeler

Shorty the Sixth, as he was sometimes called, had been a very winning puppy, and they had kept him at home until he began to exhibit the same tendencies that Duane's blue heelers always exhibited, that is, a tendency to herd children in the same way they would have herded cattle or sheep: they nipped their heels.

2003, Larry McMurtry, Duane's Depressed, page 75:

He always has his blue heeler dog in his office tucked away under his feet or near the door.

2007, Graham Greenwood, A Truckie's Dream: The Allan Scott Story : His Official Biography, page 113:

For some time, Dan and Pat had been at me to get a dog so we took a trip to the Yagoona RSPCA and came back with a blue heeler pup.

2008, Elizabeth Bruce, A Show Off, Just Like Your Father, page 92:

Australian Cattle Dog
Australian Cattle Dog

(Australia) A blue-coated variety of the Australian Cattle Dog breed.


tur

Borrowed from Russian тур (tur). Doublet of steer and Taurus.

Then to Hanukkah's mild surprise a voice rose up and, with laconic precision, likened this rumored brother Alp to the secretion on the nether parts of a she-tur.

2007, Michael Chabon, Gentlemen of the Road, Sceptre, published 2008, page 90:

Either of two species of wild goat native to Caucasus, West Caucasian tur Capra caucasica or East Caucasian tur Capra cylindricornis.


wow-wow

From Malay wauwau or Javanese wâwâ, imitative of the animal's call.

A gibbon, especially the silvery gibbon or the agile gibbon.


tind

From Middle English tind, tynd, from Old English tind (“tine, prong, tooth”), from Proto-West Germanic *tind, from Proto-Germanic *tindaz (“prong, pinnacle”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃dénts (“tooth, projection”). Cognate with Dutch tinne (“battlement”), German Zinne (“pinnacle, battlement”), Danish tinde (“pinnacle, battlement”), Dutch tinne (“tooth of a rake”), Icelandic tindur (“spike, tooth of a rake or harrow, pinnacle, peak, battlement”). Cf. the related tine. Also more distantly related to Dutch tand (“tooth, tine”), English tooth.

cog

(UK dialectal, Scotland) A branch of a deer's antler; the horn of a unicorn; a tooth of a harrow; a spike.


Roosmalens' dwarf marmoset

en-noun

Roosmalens' dwarf marmoset (plural Roosmalens' dwarf marmosets)

Named after Marc van Roosmalen, its discoverer.

A New World monkey (Callithrix humilis or Callibella humilis), about 5-6 inches tall at adulthood.


mara

Maras have a white patch of fur on the rump that they flash when running, an adaptation they share with several species of deer and antelopes.

1999, Michael A. Mares, editor, Encyclopedia of Deserts, Mara, page 349:

Although only Dolichotis, the Patagonian mara, is strongly cursorial, all caviids have certain features typical of cursorial mammals[…].

2011, Terry A. Vaughan, James M. Ryan, Nicholas J. Czaplewski, Mammalogy, 5th edition, page 228:

Maras (Dolichotis patagonum) are cursorial and prefer open areas with low vegetation for breeding and more barren sites for construction of communal dens (Taber and Macdonald 1992; Baldi 2007).

2013, R. L. Honeycutt, “Chapter 3: Phylogenetics of Caviomorph Rodents and Genetic Perspectives on the Evolution of Sociality and Mating Systems in the Caviidae”, in José Roberto Moreira, Katia Maria P.M.B. Ferraz, Emilio A. Herrera, David W. Macdonald, editors, Capybara: Biology, Use and Conservation of an Exceptional Neotropical Species, page 70:

Any caviid rodent of genus Dolichotis, common in the Patagonian steppes of Argentina.


kob

Any of several large game fish of the family Sciaenidae, especially the kabeljou (dusky kob or great kob or perhaps the smaller squaretail kob.


dire wolf

Aenocyon dirus
Aenocyon dirus#Translingual

An extinct canine (†Aenocyon dirus) from the Pleistocene epoch, heavier and slightly larger than the modern grey wolf.

(fantasy) Synonym of warg (“type of wolf”)


dark horse

Originally an allusion to an unknown horse with a dark coat winning a race, as used in the 1831 novel The Young Duke by Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881).

(horse racing) A horse whose capabilities are not known.


flat out

The circuit is very well endowed with corners of all sorts from hairpins to flat-outs, has a 1,540-yd. straight and measures 5.2 miles, partly on an airfield, partly through a built-up area.

1952, Motor, volume 102, number 2654, page 31:

(motor racing, horse racing) An uncambered corner of racetrack; a racetrack whose corners are uncambered.


stirrup

From Middle English stirop, stirope, from Old English stiġrāp (“stirrup”), a compound of stiġe ("ascent, descent, a going up or down"; related to stīġan (“to climb”)) and rāp (“rope”), equivalent to sty + rope.
Cognate with Dutch stegereep, stegelreep (“stirrup”), Old Saxon stigerēp (“stirrup”), Middle High German stereip, stegreif ("stirrup"; > German Stegreif (“improvisation”)), Icelandic stigreip (“stirrup”).

gloss

"ascent, descent, a going up or down"; related to <i class="Latn mention" lang="ang">stīġan</i> (“to climb”)

"stirrup"; > German <i class="Latn mention" lang="de">Stegreif</i> (“improvisation”)

With what different feelings did he now put foot in stirrup to the last time when he sprung to horse?

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, pages 36–37:

(equestrianism) A ring or hoop suspended by a rope or strap from the saddle, for a horseman's foot while mounting or riding.

(by extension) Any piece shaped like the stirrup of a saddle, used as a support, clamp, etc.

(climbing) A portable, flexible ladder-like device used in climbing.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:stirrup.

(nautical) A rope secured to a yard, with a thimble in its lower end for supporting a footrope.

(construction) A bent rebar wrapped around the main rebars to reinforce against shear stress.


eventer

(equestrianism) The rider of a horse used in eventing.


champ at the bit

en-verb

champ at the bit (third-person singular simple present champs at the bit, present participle champing at the bit, simple past and past participle champed at the bit)

champs at the bit (present singular third-person)
champing at the bit (participle present)
champed at the bit (participle past)
champed at the bit (past)

From champ (verb) (“to chew noisily”) + bit (“part of horse's harness held in its mouth”); horses tend to chew their bits when impatient with waiting.

(intransitive, equestrianism) To bite the bit, especially when restless.


pinniped

From
Latin pinna (“fin”) + pes (“foot”).

Any of various large marine mammals belonging to the parvorder Pinnipedia comprising walruses, eared seals and earless seals.


horses for courses

/ˈhɔɹsəz fɚ ˈkɔɹsəz/

An allusion to the fact that a racehorse performs best on a racecourse to which it is specifically suited.

Not long ago, a group of Thames-side penthouses went up for sale with giveaway Ducati motorbikes worth £13,000 apiece. […] "In many cases giveaways are horses for courses, the inducements matching the styles of properties being marketed," he [David Hollingworth of London and Country Mortgages] adds.

2003 May 14, Christopher Browne, “Bonanza time for home buyers”, in The Independent, London, archived from the original on 2017-11-21:

Far be it from me to judge what anyone else finds attractive – each to their own, horses for courses, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and any number of similar well-meaning platitudes – but no one's going to start arguing forcefully that Mick [Hucknall]'s ever been 'classically handsome'.

2014 November 10, Helen Coffey, “What does Mick Hucknall have that other men lack?”, in The Daily Telegraph, London, archived from the original on 2015-03-11:

Emailed greeting cards and digital photos may be more acceptable now, but are not a substitute for the post on every occasion. "People will still want to pour their heart out in letter or want that special photo of a grandchild. It's horses for courses," he [Alki Manias of NetValue] said.

2002 March 13, Sarah Left, “Email beats snail mail for residential use”, in The Guardian, London, archived from the original on 2016-03-05:

However intense music becomes, there's always a limit to how far it can go. And that limit is marked out by its genre or style. […] It's an age-old rule, this insistence on "horses for courses", but in the modern era many musicians have become impatient with it. They dream of a music that knows no limits, which can do everything, all at once.

2013 January 12, Ivan Hewett, “John Zorn: Master of all styles and none”, in The Daily Telegraph, London, archived from the original on 2016-03-15:

We must note, too, the good position (third) gained by Esmond as an undeniable instance of the "horses for courses" theory, for Esmond won the Peverill of the Peek Plate on this course two years in succession—1892–3.

1894 December, Baily’s Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, volume 62, London: Baily Brothers, →OCLC, page 417:

Almost immediately he went on to press for stricter standardisation in the future, saying that "horses for courses" was a luxury B.R. could not afford and that manufacturers must expect more detailed specifications from railway engineers in the future.

1961 July, “Editorial: Sir Brian begs the questions”, in Trains Illustrated, page 385:

(chiefly British, idiomatic) Different people are suited for different jobs or situations; what is fitting in one case may not be fitting in another.

適材適所 class yojijukugo

different people are suited for different jobs or situations


mahout

mahout (third-person singular simple present mahouts, present participle mahouting, simple past and past participle mahouted)

mahouts (present singular third-person)
mahouting (participle present)
mahouted (participle past)
mahouted (past)

PIE word
 *méǵh₂s
The noun is borrowed from Hindustani (Hindi महौत (mahaut)/Urdu مَہَوت (mahaut)), महाउत (mahāut), variants of महावत (mahāvat)/مَہاوَت (mahāvat), from Sanskrit महामात्र (mahāmātra, “elephant keeper; high official; king’s minister”), from महा (mahā, “great”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s (“big, great”)) + मात्र (mātra, “measure; quantity”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- (“to measure”)).
The verb is derived from the noun.

ref

From the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England, United Kingdom.

der

First a team of six ponied pulling a miniature fire engine jumping with midget firefighters, then a dozen scantily mahouted elephants painted pink, came out of the arc light and sawdut into neon glow and mirroring asphalt.

1957 July, Edward Wellen, “Sweet Dreams”, in Larry T[aylor] Shaw, editor, Infinity Science Fiction, volume 2, number 4, New York, N.Y.: Royal Publications, →OCLC, pages 67–68:

Traditionally they are hunters and gatherers but today they are agricultural labourers. […] They are experts at collecting honey and mahouting.

2010, Rajeevan R., “A Socio-political Analysis of the Tribes in Kerala”, in Towards Political Empowerment: Political Socialization and Political Participation of Tribal Community in Kerala, Delhi: Kalpaz Publications, →ISBN, page 41:


scratch

en-noun

scratch (countable and uncountable, plural scratches)

From Middle English scracchen, of uncertain origin. Probably a blend of Middle English scratten (“to scratch”) and cracchen (“to scratch”). More at scrat and cratch.

There were two scratches in race 8, which reduced the field from nine horses to seven.

(horse racing) A horse withdrawn from a race prior to the start.


glaring

2010, Chuck Lorre et al., The Big Bang Theory, episode “The Zazzy Substitution”
Leonard: You’re clearly upset about Amy being gone, and you’re trying to replace her with a bunch of cats.
Sheldon: Clowder.
Leonard: What?
Sheldon: A group of cats is a clowder. Or a glaring. It’s the kind of thing you ought to know now that we have one.


rustler

(US, especially Western US, slang, dated) An alert, energetic, driving person.


workhorse

From Middle English werkehorse, equivalent to work + horse.

A horse used primarily for manual labor; a draft horse.


fossa

→ Portuguese: fossa

→ Translingual: Fossa

[Alt: Cryptoprocta ferox
Borrowing from Malagasy fosa which likely once referred to the Malayan weasel (Mustela nudipes) prior to a semantic shift, thus cognate with Malay pusak and Tagalog pusa both meaning "cat".

Cryptoprocta ferox
Cryptoprocta ferox#Translingual

A large nocturnal reddish-brown catlike mammal (Cryptoprocta ferox) of the civet family, endemic to the rainforests of Madagascar. It is slender, long-tailed and has retractile claws and anal scent glands.


elkhound

Norwegian Elkhound, a breed of dog from Norway for hunting elk (US: moose).


futurity

futurity (countable and uncountable, plural futurities)

/fjuːˈt͡ʃʊəɹɪti/

(horse racing) A race for two-year-old horses, nominated to run when still foals.


gruelling

/ˈɡɹu.əl.ɪŋ/

From present particle of gruel (“to exhaust, punish”), from gruel (noun).

The expenses are considerably reduced, and one or two men are prevented from carrying off nearly all the races ; for though " the spirit" may be ever so " willing," the " flesh is weak," and cannot stand more than five or six gruellings in a single day.

1869, John William Carleton, The Sporting review, ed. by 'Craven'., page 394:

Miss Harriet just got there first from Vauban, the latter being leg weary from his previous gruellings ; the bitch scored four more before giving way to the dog, who made some nice driving points ; Miss Harriet, coming again, finished a good trial an easy winner.

1871, The COURSING CALENDAR For The AUTUMN SEASON 1870, page 229:

The course was given to the black puppy, but his chance was generally considered to have been utterly destroyed by the two gruellings he had received.

1907, James Blyth, The irrevocable, and other stories, page 230:

When "Red Robin's" other great son, "Dee Rock", was retired to stud in 1935 I recollect, too, the pessimistic prophecies of those sceptics that a dog that had endured so many gruellings in the field would never accomplish much at stud.

1949, H. Edwards Clarke, The modern greyhound, page 66:

(horse racing) A race in which the animal being raced finishes in a state of physical exhaustion.


azoturia

azoturia (usually uncountable, plural azoturias)

(veterinary medicine) A condition that affects the muscles of horses, ranging from stiffness and mild cramps to the horse becoming unable to stand, with discoloured urine


packrat

en-verb

packrat (third-person singular simple present packrats, present participle packratting, simple past and past participle packratted)

packrats (present singular third-person)
packratting (participle present)
packratted (participle past)
packratted (past)

(colloquial, transitive, intransitive) To hoard things.


kiang

A large wild ass, Equus kiang, native to the Tibetan Plateau.


rorqual

From Norwegian Nynorsk røyrkval, from Old Norse reyðarhvalr (“fin whale”).

Now then, the biggest whales, those rorqual whales that frequent the waterways of the Aleutian Islands, have never exceeded a length of 56 meters--if they reach even that.

2001 [1873], Frederick Paul Walter, transl., 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas, Wikisource / Project Gutenberg, translation of Vingt mille lieues sous les mers by Jules Verne:

Any whale of family Balaenopteridae, with longitudinal skin folds running from below the mouth to the navel, allowing the capacity of the mouth to expand greatly when feeding.


cairn

From Scots cairn, from Scottish Gaelic càrn, from Old Irish carn, from Proto-Celtic *karnos, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂- (“horn”).
Compare Welsh carn, Cornish carn. Doublet of carn and horn.


yarraman

Uncertain. Suspected to be from an Australian language of coastal New South Wales, but the term was used by white settlers as a pidgin for communicating with the indigenous people and was rapidly adopted into their languages (preceding actual arrival of horses in some cases), making an origin difficult to ascertain. Each may well have believed they were using the other's word! (Reference: R. M. W. Dixon, Australian Aboriginal Words, Oxford University Press, 1990, →ISBN.)


saddle bow

From Middle English sadel-bowe, sadel-boȝe, from Old English sadulboga, sadolboga, equivalent to saddle + bow. Displaced non-native arson (“saddle bow”), from Middle English arsoun.

the Prince […] stroke the Pagan with his steely brand / So sore, that to his saddle-bow thereby / He bowed low, and so a while did lie […].

1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

The Government mobilized the full force of 18,000 mounted gendarmes and sent them picking their way over the sand about as heavily armored as any policeman could be: a long lance in one hand, a sabre at the saddle bow, a rifle across the back, a pistol on the hip.

1931 October 12, “Sand in the Streets”, in Time:

The front part of the saddle that is arched up like a bow.


palfrey

From Middle English palfrey, from Anglo-Norman palefrei (“steed”), from Old French palefroi, palefreid, from Late Latin paraverēdus (“post horse, spare horse”), from Ancient Greek παρά (pará) + Latin verēdus (“post horse”), from Gaulish *werēdos (“horse”) (compare Welsh gorwydd (“horse”)), from Proto-Celtic *uɸoreidos (“horse”). Doublet of prad. Compare Dutch paard and German Pferd.

der

Five warriors seiz'd me yestermorn, / Me, even me, a maid forlorn: / They choked my cries with force and fright, / And tied me on a palfrey white. / The palfrey was as fleet as wind, / And they rode furiously behind.

1797, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “Christabel. Part I.”, in Christabel: Kubla Khan, a Vision: The Pains of Sleep, London: […] John Murray, […], by William Bulmer and Co. […], published 1816, →OCLC, page 8:

The eye of father and sister alike forgot every other object while watching the evolutions of the young and graceful boy, who realised the descriptions of romance as, his golden curls dancing on the wind, his cheek flushed with exercise, and his large blue eyes dilated and flashing with triumph, he ruled the snow-white palfrey by a wave of the hand and an imperceptible pressure of the knee. It seemed as if the docile creature intuitively divined his will.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, pages 154–155:

(historical) A small horse with a smooth, ambling gait, popular in the Middle Ages with nobles and women for riding (contrasted with a warhorse).


forester

Inherited from Middle English forester, a borrowing from Old French forestier, from forest + -ier; equivalent to forest + -er. Displaced native Old English wuduweard.

(obsolete or colloquial) A person who lives in a forest.

eastern grey kangaroo
eastern grey kangaroo

(Australia) Any of various species of kangaroo that inhabit bushland, especially the eastern grey kangaroo.

Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Lethe. Other members of this genus are called tree browns and wood browns.


back straight

He got boxed in amongst four African runners in the back straight of the last lap, and was only able to get out into the clear coming into the home straight.

(athletics, horse racing) The straight part of a racetrack, running track, etc., opposite the finishing line; the backstretch.


wolfhound

A dog of various breeds originally developed to hunt wolves.


curiosity killed the cat

One should not be curious about things that can be dangerous.

tanto va la gatta al lardo, che ci lascia lo zampino

la troppa curiosità spinge l'uccello nella rete

nysgjerrig høne får enten korn eller knuff

ljubopýtnoj Várvare na bazáre nos otorváli

любопы́тной Ва́рваре на база́ре нос оторва́ли

мно́го бу́дешь знать — ско́ро соста́ришься (mnógo búdešʹ znatʹ — skóro sostárišʹsja)

ме́ньше зна́ешь — кре́пче спишь (ménʹše znáješʹ — krépče spišʹ)


ure

From Middle French ure or its etymon Latin ūrus. Doublet of urus.

The Vre therefoꝛe ryſeth in the fardeſt partes of all Richmondeſhyꝛe, among the Coterine hilles, in a moſſe, towarde the weſt fourtéene myles beyonde Mydleham.

1577, William Harrison, “[An Historicall Description of the Islande of Britayne, […].] Of such Riuers as fall into the Sea, betweene Humber to the Thames.”, in The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC, folio 31, verso, column 1:

The Auer or Ure ox or European Bison, (bos urus, bonasus, bison,) is one of the largest oxen, and distinguished by a curly manelike product about the head and neck, by a very broad, arched forehead, and by moderate horns situated far apart, and being curved inward and upward in the shape of a crescent.[…]Some extracts from his work are here presented, because the opinion hitherto prevailing in certain circles that our common cattle were the offspring of the Ure; but according to these extracts it will be seen that several striking anatomical differences are found to exist between the Ure and our common cattle.[…]The Ure has fourteen vertebræ, and as many pairs of ribs, or one pair more than common cattle, but has only five lumbar vertebræ of which the common cattle have six.[…]In the old Ure, there was found in the midst of the two seminal passages, vessels, a single duct, shaped somewhat like a bag, one inch in diameter and four and a half inches in length, which is divided in front and at the top into two arching branches, like the horns of the uterus of the cow, extending as channels of 3 to 4 inches in width to the testicle, and there terminating in a cul-de-sac.[…]From the above it appears that the origin of the domesticated cattle and their original native country is, as yet, not fully ascertained. Formerly the ure was considered the parent of the same, but this is improbable on account of the anatomical differences between the ure and the common cattle.

1864, “Species of Cattle, and Origin of the Domesticated Cattle”, in Eighteenth Annual Report of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture, with an Abstract of the Proceedings of the County Agricultural Societies: to the General Assembly of Ohio, for the Year 1863, Columbus: Richard Nevins, pages 365, 366, 368:

In the Nibelungen Lied both beasts, also the giant elk, are spoken of as not extinct when that poem was written:— / Then slew he speedily a Wisent and an Elk, / Strong Ures and a giant stag (Schelch). / Cæsar describes the ure as “little smaller than an elephant, but in appearance like an ox, of great strength and speed; it never suffers itself to be tamed, and spares no man it sees. To have killed an ure is held in highest honour among the Germans, and its horns, set in silver, serve as drinking vessels at their carouses.”

1911, S. Baring-Gould, “Chapter VIII. The Fils Thal”, in The Land of Teck and Its Neighbourhood; […], London: John Lane, The Bodley Head; New York: John Lane Company, pages 176–177:

The history of extinction of an animal has rarely been so rich in documents of all kinds as the history of the Ure or Aurochs, the second big-game representative of the bovine family in Europe, and one of the most remarkable species of wild oxen in the world. The special high interest attached to this animal is due to the fact that it is generally admitted to be the ancestral form of most European cattle breeds. The Ure ceased to exist in early historical times, though a small number of individuals survived in Poland as late as the XVII century.[…]From the very early times, the first mention being that of 1510, the herds of Bos primigenius were under the protection and custody of special game-rangers who were free of all other occupation, as well as of all tax-paying, and were to look only after the wild Ures, feeding them in winter with hay collected from the adjoining meadows, and bringing back to the forest the individuals that occasionally went astray.

1952, Ochrona przyrody, volume 20, pages 32, 33:


heiferette

A female bovine, usually more than six months of age and less than two years of age, that has had no more than one calf.


destrier

I am resolved to share or avert the danger; which, that I may the better do, I would crave of thee the use of some palfrey whose pace may be softer than that of my destrier.

1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 236:

Dark and the Desert and Destriers me ken, And the Glaive and the Joust, and Paper and Pen.

1855, Al-Mutanabbi, translated by Richard Francis Burton, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

(historical) A large warhorse, especially of a medieval knight.


garron

Borrowed from Scottish Gaelic gearran, Irish gearrán.

To the west Ollo Lophand and Tim Stone were moving through the horselines, feeding and watering the remaining garrons.

2000, George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords, Bantam, published 2011, page 445:

For transport they might keep short, sturdy garrons: and the chief went nowhere on foot.

2009, John Sadler, Glencoe, Amberley, published 2009, page 37:

A small and usually disdained type of horse, typically bred in Scotland and Ireland.


weanling

Any young mammal that has been recently weaned.


puggle

en-verb

puggle (third-person singular simple present puggles, present participle puggling, simple past and past participle puggled)

puggles (present singular third-person)
puggling (participle present)
puggled (participle past)
puggled (past)

British dialect (Hertfordshire, Essex), from pug (“to poke”) + -le (“frequentative suffix”).

suffix

1828, "Philip Fidget," The Confessions of Philip Fidget, in The Spirit and Manners of the Age, New Series, Volume 1, page 417,
I am no sooner seated by a fire, but my hand instinctively fumbles after the poker, and I proceed to puggle the glowing embers, until (except timely warning prevent) I have displaced the whole into the fender.

He puggled around in the oil cavity with his little lead pencil until it slipped out of his fingers and went down into the oil cavity.

1919, James Francis Hobart, Millwrighting, McGraw-Hill, page 222:

(UK, regional) To poke around a hole with a stick, as to explore, remove obstacles, etc.


puggle

Transferal of trademarked name of a range of soft toys from the mid-1970s which superficially resemble baby echidnas.

Larger furred/spined puggles can be held in a wooden box with shredded paper.

2003, Stephen Jackson, Australian Mammals: Biology and Captive Management, unnumbered page:

2003, Robert Burton, The International Wildlife Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition, Volume 18: SOL-SWA, page 2488,
The puggle, which grows rapidly, remains in the pouch until its spines are sufficiently developed that the mother must eject it.

Hatching takes 10 days; the young echidna, called a puggle, then sucks milk from the pores of two milk patches and remains in the pouch for 45 to 55 days, at which time the spines develop. The mother digs a nursery burrow and deposits the puggle, returning every 5 days to suckle it until it is weaned at 7 months.

2012, Joseph Springer, Dennis Holley, An Introduction to Zoology, page 498:

(chiefly Australia) A baby monotreme (echidna or platypus).


English saddle

Any of several saddles which, unlike a Western saddle, do not have a horn, but have padded panels so do not need a separate saddle blanket.


skulk

From Middle English sculke, skulke, skulken, of North Germanic origin; compare Danish skulke (“shirk”), Swedish skolka (“play truant”).

A skulk of foxes, a cowardice of curs are tonight’s traffic whispering in the yards and lanes.

1973, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 1, in Gravity's Rainbow, 1st US edition, New York: Viking Press, →ISBN:

A skulk of fox padded daintily over a stream-slashed meadow, and a herd of deer like iron ornaments stood stock still in their winter pelage.

2007, Millard Kaufman, chapter 19, in Bowl of Cherries, San Francisco: McSweeney’s Books, page 128:


fitchew

From Middle English fitchewes (mistaken as a plural), variant of Middle English fichouse, ficheux, from Old French fissiauls (plural) and fichau, fissel (“polecat”), from Middle Dutch vitsche, visse, fisse (“polecat”), ultimately (via a Northern French dialect) from Latin vissiō (“stench”). Compare French vison (“mink”).


Hokkaido

From Japanese 北(ほっ)海(かい)道(どう) (Hokkaidō, “North Sea Circuit”), from Middle Chinese 北海 (pək-hʌi˧˥, “Northern sea”) + 道 (dáu, “Circuit”, a province-like administrative unit from Tang dynasty China).

com

In the past, the Ainu (their selfname meaning 'person'), traditionally huntergatherers, occupied not only Hokkaido but also a considerable part of the island of Honshu until the middle the eighteenth century, […]

2009, Nicolas Tranter, The Languages of Japan and Korea:

I took another look at the map, impressed by how useful random modern Earth knowledge was in this world. Tsia Mountain, which contained our dungeon, was within the Empire’s territory. Using the size of the mountain to estimate distance… Yeah, the Empire was pretty huge. How many Hokkaidos could even fit in here? More than a few. Not to mention that there’s dozens of dungeons marked on the map.

2019, Supana Onikage, translated by Quof, edited by K. “Kitty-tama” Jordan, Lazy Dungeon Master, volume 5, J-Novel Club, →ISBN:

The second largest island of Japan, capital Sapporo.

Hokkaido

a northern largest island of Japan, or a prefecture based in itself


Hokkaido

[…] Hokkaidos or Ainus (smaller versions of the Akita); Akitas, Japanese Spitz, Japanese Chin, Nippon Terriers and Kai Ken.

1983, Pure-bred Dogs, American Kennel Gazette, page 11:

A breed of dog originating from Japan, resembling a spitz dog breed, although not officially ranked as a spitz dog breed.


Shikoku

From Japanese 四国 (しこく, Shikoku, “four provinces”), from Middle Chinese 四 (sìj, “four”) + 國 (kwok, “state”, “country”).
(dog): < Japanese 四国犬 (shikoku-inu, “Shikoku dog”), named after the island where they originated.


hot-blooded

en-adj

hot-blooded (comparative more hot-blooded or hotter-blooded, superlative most hot-blooded or hottest-blooded)

more hot-blooded (comparative)
hotter-blooded (comparative)
most hot-blooded (superlative)
hottest-blooded (superlative)

For my own part, judging from experiments ranging from the cold-blooded to the hottest-blooded animals—from the alligator to the common fowl—I am constrained to say, that after decapitation, the sensational phenomena and voluntary motion are far more strongly indicated in the headless body, than in the separated head.

1851 June, Bennet Dowler, Experimental Researches, Illustrative of the Functional Oneness, Unity, and Diffusion, of Nervous Action; in Opposition to the Anatomical Assumption, of Four Sets of Nerves, and a Fourfold Set of Functions, and Transmitted Impressions; […], New Orleans, La.: […] Joseph Cohn, […], pages 16–17:

By taking little or no exercise, in passing most of the time in sleep, and residing in a tropical climate, or in a temperate one during the hottest summer months, while the experiment lasts, it will be found that the system needs but little food, the waste of the tissues being reduced to a minimum, and there being but little need for the heat produced on account of the high temperature of the surroundings. By living in this way, man can transform himself almost into a cold-blooded or hot-blooded hibernating animal.

1887, Henry C[adwalader] Chapman, “Food”, in Treatise on Human Physiology. For the Use of Students and Practitioners of Medicine., Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea Brothers & Co., page 85:

Most hot-blooded animals cannot sweat as we do to get rid of excess body heat, so big “radiator” ears are a common desert adaptation.

1992, Diana Kappel-Smith, Desert Time: A Journey Through the American Southwest, Tucson, Ariz.: The University of Arizona Press, →ISBN, page 109:


wallaroo

Any of three closely related species of moderately large macropods, intermediate in size between the kangaroos and the wallabies.

yuru

any of three intermediate-size macropods


right whale

From right + whale, but the sense of right in the name is unknown. The commonly given etymology based on these whales being for various reasons the "right" whales to hunt (e.g. easy to hunt and docile) is questionable but highly plausible and therefore not necessarily a folk etymology, as Eric Jay Dolin writes in 2007 in his history of American whaling: The earliest references to the right whale offer no indication why it was called that, and some who have studied the issue point out that the word "right" in this context might just as likely be intended "to connote 'true' or 'proper,' meaning typical of the group." The scientific name of the whale's genus is Eubalaena, which means "good or true whales".

It is said (in what may be an apocryphal story) that around 1712, a Nantucket captain named Christopher Hussey was blown offshore while hunting right whales, and came upon a school of large, bluff-headed whales with forward-angled spouts.

1996, Richard Ellis, Deep Atlantic: Life, Death, and Exploration in the Abyss, page 305:

The previous night, they’d received a call from the federal Department of Oceans and Fisheries (DFO): a right whale was tangled up in crab trap lines near their location.

2018 June 20, Chelsea Murray, The Guardian:

Greenland right whale
Greenland right whale

Any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae, in the genera Eubalaena (three species) and Balaena including the bowhead whale or Greenland right whale).

balena franca

any of certain baleen whales of the family Balaenidae


waterbuck

en-noun

waterbuck (plural waterbucks or waterbuck)

From Afrikaans waterbok, after the animal's habit of escaping to waterways.
Wikispecies

A species of antelope endemic to Africa, Kobus ellipsiprymnus.


packsaddle

From pack + saddle. Compare Dutch pakzadel, German Packsattel.

A saddle designed to secure and carry goods on the back of an animal.


coronet

From Middle French couronnette, from Old French coronete, diminutive of corone (“crown”), from Latin corona, from Ancient Greek κορώνη (korṓnē, “a type of sea-bird, perhaps shearwater; a crow; anything curved or hooked (like a door handle or the tip of a bow); a type of crown”).

ensign

infantry equivalent of the cavalry coronet

first NATO commissioned officer grade above OF-0 trainee officer

The traditional lowest regular commissioned officer rank in the cavalry.


rhinocerot

en-noun

rhinocerot (plural rhinocerots or (archaic) rhinocerotes)

rhinocerots (plural)
rhinocerotes (archaic plural)

/ɹaɪˈnɒsəɹɒt/

From the inflected stem of Latin rhinoceros. Compare Middle French rhinocerote, obsolete Italian rinocerote.

Antoninus Pius the Emperor, did give many gifts unto the people, amongst which were both Tigers and Rhinocerots, (saith Iulius Capitalinus in his life).

1551, Edward Topsell, The Historie of Foure-footed Beastes, translation of Historiae Animalium de Quadrupedibus viviparis by Conrad Gesner, published 1607:

Beyond that Country of Birds, is another wilde and mountainous, where abide many creatures much worse than those Birds, Elephants, Rhinocerotes, Lions, Wild-swine, Buffals, and Wild-kine.

1625, Samuel Purchas, Hakluytus Posthumus, J MacLehose, published 1905, page 63:

I lately observ'd, that all the teeth of a Rhinocerot, which grow on either side of its mouth, are join'd into one large bone, the weight of one of which I found to be neer eleven pound Haverdupois.

1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, section XL:

The Indians have a kind of Crocodile in Ganges, which hath a horn growing out of his nose like a Rhinocerot

1896, HW Seager, editor, Natural History in Shakespeare’s Time, Kessinger, published 2004, page 76:


catnip

catnip (countable and uncountable, plural catnips)

Audio (US)

Compound of cat + nep, nip (“catnip”), from Middle English nep, from Old English nepte, from Proto-West Germanic *nepetā, from Latin nepeta (“catnip”). Compare earlier catmint (“catnip”), from Middle English catt mynte, which very likely existed in Old English (as *cattes minte) as well.

Any of the about 250 species of flowering plant of the genus Nepeta, family Lamiaceae, certain of which are said to have medicinal qualities.


groundhog

→ Kashubian: grańdółk (Canada)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-groundhog.wav

A red-brown marmot, Marmota monax, native to North America.


elephant in the room

elephant in the room (plural elephants in the room)

Likely US origin, or possibly from Ivan Andreyevich Krylov's 1814 fable, The Inquisitive Man, which tells of a man going to a museum and noticing all sorts of things apart from an elephant.

There is an elephant in the room that nearly every politician and green campaigner is ignoring. It’s called population growth.

2008 January 6, Nicholas Rufford, “Motormouth: The car of the future, at £1,300”, in Sunday Times (UK):

While the Swiss bank remained positive on the sector through 2022, the coronavirus situation remained “the elephant in the room,” he added.

2022 January 17, Martin Choi, “Macau’s gaming law reforms positive for casino industry, but outlook clouded by Covid-19 uncertainty, UBS, JPMorgan analysts say”, in South China Morning Post:

(idiomatic) A problem or difficult issue that is very obvious, but is ignored for the convenience or comfort of those involved.


borzoi

Borrowed from Russian борзо́й (borzój), from бо́рзый (bórzyj, “swift”), from Proto-Indo-European *mréǵʰus (whence English brief, brace and merry).

Pia loves Rob, she had written it with her lipstick on the walls of the vespasienne in the Rue Colombe, waiting for him to finish, holding her pampered borzoi on the leash.

1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 171:

A dog of a particular breed, similar in shape to a greyhound but with longer silkier hair.


selkie

(Celtic mythology) A seal which can magically transform into a human by shedding its skin.


karakul

Named after the town Qorakoʻl, from Uzbek, meaning black lake.


kidskin

kidskin (countable and uncountable, plural kidskins)


Keeshond

Keeshond (plural Keeshonden or Keeshonds)

A spitz bred in the Netherlands and Germany, characterized by a fluffy coat of silver and black fur.


dropper

(mining) A branch vein which drops off from, or leaves, the main lode.

(Australia) A batten fixed to a post-and-wire fence to keep the wires apart.

A seat post whose height can be adjusted while riding.


malamute

So called because the dogs were bred by the Malamute people of western Alaska. The people's name derives from Inupiaq malimiut.

An ancient northern breed of dog of the husky type, particularly used as a sled dog.


pastern

From Middle English pastron, pastroun, pasturne, from Old French pasturon, diminutive of pasture (“shackle for a horse in pasture”), from Vulgar Latin pastōriā.

It was quite impossible to ride over the deeply-ploughed field; the earth bore only where there was still a little ice, in the thawed furrows the horse's legs sank in above its pasterns.

1918, Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude (Oxford 1998), page 158

Below me, somewhere in the horse-lines, stood Cockbird, picketed to a peg in the ground by a rope which was already giving him a sore pastern.

1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin, published 2013, page 227:

The part of a horse's leg between the fetlock joint and the hoof.

Edward H[enry] Knight
w:Edward H. Knight

(obsolete) A shackle for horses while pasturing.

Upright he walks, on pasterns firm and straight;
His motions easy; prancing in his gait
So straight she walk'd, and on her pasterns high.

1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:


murine

From Latin stem, mur-, of mus (“mouse”) + -ine.


whitetail

Odocoileus virginianus
Odocoileus virginianus#Translingual

A deer, Odocoileus virginianus, family Cervidae, perhaps the most popular game animal in North America.


whoop-de-doo

When Shoemaker wins or loses by a nose, it is an odds-on bet that a whoop-de-doo rider would have lost by lengths, having wasted the horse prematurely.

1988, Tom Ainslie, Ainslie's Complete Guide to Thoroughbred Racing, →ISBN, page 203:

(horse racing) A style of racing in which the jockey establishes an early lead and then runs as fast as possible.


weh

oh weh ! oh weh ! " — Sweetest mother, you have the illness ; oh weh ! oh weh ! It was so

1864, Flora Dawson, Princes, Public Men, and Pretty Women: Episodes in Real Life:

"Oh, weh! oh, weh!" The Child-Who-Was-Tired pushed and pulled them apart, muffled them into their coats, and drove them out of the house.

1910, Katherine Mansfield, The Child-Who_Was-Tired:

Perhaps it's in Lausanne, at the shore of Lake Leman, and in the widow's arms that Wolf wrote Oh weh! Perhaps she whispered it into his ear, when they first slept together, or when he parted from her. Perhaps it was her oh weh! he could never forget.

1992, Ewa Kuryluk, Century 21, →ISBN, page 307:

I tell you that it's true compassion, baby, oh weh.

"Kill one village, But leave another. Kill one village, But leave another. On the lake: weh weh weh weh weh.

2012, Regina F. Bendix, Galit Hasan-Rokem, A Companion to Folklore, →ISBN, page 90:

At last one night the Master of Sorcerers in secret places raised his voice and cried: “Weh-h-h-h! Weh-h-h-h-h-h!”

2017, Frank Hamilton Cushing, Zuñi Folk Tales:


muscardine

muscardine (countable and uncountable, plural muscardines)

(countable, uncountable) A fungal disease, caused by Beauveria bassiana and other species, that affects silkworms, their bodies becoming white and covered with spores.


chital

From Hindi चीतल (cītal), from Sanskrit चित्रल (citrala, “variegated, spotted”) from Sanskrit चित्र (citra, “spotted, bright; spot, mark”).

der

a large spotted deer, of genus Axis, native to India and Sri Lanka


ailurophile

/aɪˈljʊəɹəˌfaɪl/

/aɪˈlʊɹəˌfaɪl/

/eɪˈlʊɹəˌfaɪl/

From ailuro- (“cat”) + -phile (“lover”), from Ancient Greek αἴλουρος (aílouros, “cat”) + φίλος (phílos, “dear, beloved”).

He played the piano well, was an enthusiastic ailurophile, and persistently played solitaire while talking and writing.

1971, E. F. Bleiler, “Introduction”, in Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, Montague Rhodes James, page 4:

When the archbishop would send Philip on an assignment, he would leave the cat in the care of the archbishop, who apparently was not an ailurophile.

2001, Woodeene Koenig-Bricker, Praying With the Saints: Making Their Prayers Your Own, page 192:

Alicia is not a serious ailurophile, however; she neglects Chestnut, and Chestnut knows it.

Your identity as an ailurophile (cat lover) is confirmed by cat hair on your clothes, but that is a distinction that most of us will gladly forfeit.

2005, Dan Rice, Bengal Cats: Everything about Purchase, Care, Nutrition, Breeding, Health Care and Behavior, page 53:

A person with ailurophilia; a cat-lover.


cribbing

en-noun

cribbing (countable and uncountable, plural cribbings)

After the Loma Prieta earthquake, they had to put cribbing under portions of San Francisco's Embarcadero Freeway, for fear it would collapse.

US Army Corps of Engineers site
If the structure is to be raised in place without relocation, once it is raised to the desired elevation the jacks are replaced with timber cribbing.

As a whole, the heavy structure built to support an existing structure from underneath, as with a mineshaft or when raising a building off its foundation, as for moving to another location,

obsessive-compulsive disorder
obsessive-compulsive disorder

(ethology, equestrianism) A self-injurious tendency of certain horses to swallow air while slobbering and biting onto objects in and about their enclosure; cribbing and windsucking are regarded as equine forms of obsessive-compulsive disorder.


roughshod

The horses fell down three times, the roads being slippery, and we walked three miles to Linlithgow. There we waited two hours, to have the fresh horses roughshod.

1814 November 10, Miss Berry [Mary Berry], edited by Lady [Maria] Theresa Lewis, Extracts of the Journals and Correspondence of Miss Berry from the year 1783 to 1852. … In Three Volumes, volume III, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1865, →OCLC, page 36:

Those who have followed a French army well know that their horses are always rough-shod. [...] Horses can bear cold when properly fed, and if they had not been rough-shod there were farriers attached to the army.

1875, C. Joyneville [pseudonym; Catherine Laura Johnstone], “The French Retreat and the Russian Pursuit”, in Life and Times of Alexander I. Emperor of All the Russias. … In Three Volumes, volume II, London: Tinsley Brothers, 8, Catherine Street, Strand, →OCLC, page 227:

A horse is roughshod when the nails are left protruding out of its shoes so that the animal does not slip and fall. Consequently, being ridden over by a roughshod horse would be quite agonizing.

1996, Sandra L. Olsen, “Introduction”, in Sandra L. Olsen, editor, Horses through Time, Boulder, Colo.: Roberts Rinehart Publishers for Carnegie Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page 8:

(farriery) Of a horse: having hooves shod with horseshoes that have calks or projecting parts to prevent slipping.


silverback

(mammalogy) A mature male gorilla, so named from the silver streaking on its back.


yellowtail

yellowtail (plural yellowtails or yellowtail)

yellowtails (plural)
yellowtail (plural)

A yellow-tailed woolly monkey (Oreonax flavicauda), a New World primate endemic to Peru.


hembra

Borrowed from Spanish hembra. Doublet of feme, femina, and femme.


dibbler

A small mouse-like marsupial, (Parantechinus apicalis), of southwest Western Australia.


Homo sapien

Back-formation from the taxonomic name Homo sapiens, treated as if an English plural form.

A child possesses no human nature at birth. At this time he is only a raw homo sapien with human nature potentials, ...

1953, T. R. Schaffler, A Formula for the Process of Socialization, in Journal of Educational Sociology, Vol. 27, No. 2

I think I'm sophisticated / 'Cause I'm living my life like a good homo sapien

1970, The Kinks (lyrics and music), “Apeman”, in Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One:

1982, Emmett Davis, The Ethics of Information Serving Homo Sapiens Vs. Homo Biblios, in Ethics and Reference Services
In designing the institutions called libraries, we have underemphasized both the contribution each homo sapien, indeed each element of creation, is offering the universe and the support that records of knowledge can provide each homo sapien during portions of their lives to maximize those contributions.

2000, Lauretta Lueck, The Many Waters
As we know, there were many types of hominids, and in various stages of development, but none were modern, or completely Homo sapien.

2003, Danny Pate, Creation
The Anatomically modern Homo sapien was merely a beast who looked exactly like Man. That’s because God used this Anatomically modern Homo sapien as a prototype in creating Adam and Eve.

(proscribed) A member of the species Homo sapiens.


horsebox

On October 31 [...] Laira "Grange" No. 6871 passed through Wolverhampton with a Holyhead-Didcot horsebox special.

1960 January, “Motive Power Miscellany: Western Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 58:

(UK, rail transport, obsolete) A van-type railway vehicle specially built for the carriage of horses.


Siberian

[saɪˈbɪəɹɪən]


like a cat on a hot tin roof

A simile developed from the behaviour of a cat observed on a hot tin roof.

(simile, colloquial, chiefly US) Jumpy, nervous.


brown rat

Rattus norvegicus
Rattus norvegicus#Translingual

A rat of species Rattus norvegicus, common worldwide.


Norway rat

The common name was popularised (and perhaps coined) by English naturalist John Berkenhout, in his Outlines of the Natural History of Great Britain (1769). Berkenhout believed the species migrated to England from Norwegian ships in 1728; he is also responsible for the scientific name.


Hereford

en-proper noun

Hereford (countable and uncountable, plural Herefords)

From Middle English Hereford, from Old English Hereford, from Old English here (“army”) + ford (“ford”). Compare Herford, North Rhine-Westphalia.

A number of places in the United States:

A locality in Cochise County, Arizona, named after Frank Hereford.

An unincorporated community in Weld County, Colorado.

Baltimore County
Baltimore County#English

An unincorporated community in Baltimore County, Maryland.

An unincorporated community in Callaway County, Missouri.

Deaf Smith County
Deaf Smith County#English

A city, the county seat of Deaf Smith County, Texas, United States, named for Hereford cattle raised there.


snowshoe rabbit

en-noun

snowshoe rabbit (plural snowshoe rabbits)


snowshoe hare

Lepus americanus
Lepus americanus#Translingual

(zoology) A North American hare (Lepus americanus) that has large, furry feet; its fur is white in winter and brown in summer.


bunning

1988, R. Langford, Don’t Take Your Love to Town
Old folk hunted for bandicoot and bunning in this grass.


merrigan

1980, P. Pepper, You Are What You Make Yourself
’Course, they had the merrigarn with them—that’s their dingo.

1993, J. Janson, Gunjies
Merrigans barkin’.


splint

From Middle English splint, splent, splente, from Middle Low German splinte, splente or Middle Dutch splint, splinte. Cognate with Old High German splinza (“bar, bolt, latch”). All ultimately from Proto-Germanic *splintǭ, *splintō (“piece of wood, splinter”), from Proto-Germanic *splint-, *splind- (“to split”), from a nasalized form of *splītaną (“to split”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pley- (“to split, splice”).

der

(zootomy, veterinary medicine) A disease affecting the splint bones, as a callosity or hard excrescence.


Black Angus

Any of a breed of black, hornless cattle from Scotland.


caparison

en-verb

caparison (third-person singular simple present caparisons, present participle caparisoning, simple past and past participle caparisoned)

caparisons (present singular third-person)
caparisoning (participle present)
caparisoned (participle past)
caparisoned (past)

From Middle French caparasson (Modern French caparaçon), from Old Spanish caparazón, from Old Occitan capairon.

Come, bustle, bustle; caparison my horse

1593, Shakespeare, Richard III, Act 5, Scene 3:

To dress up a horse or elephant with ornamental coverings.


sled dog

Any dog, such as a husky, that pulls a sled as part of a team.


ferine

en-adj

ferine (comparative more ferine, superlative most ferine)

more ferine (comparative)
most ferine (superlative)

From Latin ferīnus, from fera (“wild animal”). The zoological sense was coined by William Whewell in 1840.

the season of rutting (an uncouth phrase, by which the vulgar denote that gentle dalliance, which in the well-wooded forest of Hampshire, passes between lovers of the ferine kind) […]

1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 162:

(now rare) Pertaining to wild, menacing animals; feral.


scalawag

Of obscure origin, perhaps from the name of the Shetland village of Scalloway (from Old Norse Skálavágr), known for its dwarf ponies and dwarf cattle.

(derogatory) A disreputable fellow, a good-for-nothing, a scapegrace, a blackguard.

“This ruckus never seems to end.” (Colin laughing) “He's very loud, and unlike us, he does not sleep during the day.” “Nor does he sleep during the night.” “When does he sleep?” “I don't think he does.” (glass breaks) “Never a dull moment with that scalawag.” “I'm pretty sure he must be part demon.” “Nonsense. He's all boy.”

2022 August 9, Ayo Edebiri & Shana Gohd, “Private School” (0:54 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 4, episode 5, spoken by Laszlo Cravensworth (Matt Berry):

(informal) A badly behaved person, especially a child; a mischief-maker; a rascal.

“And you, Hugh Elsing, I’m ashamed of you! What will your poor mother say? Drunk and out with a—a Yankee-loving Scallawag like Captain Butler![…]”

1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, →OCLC, part IV, page 803:

(derogatory, US, archaic or historical) Any white Southerner who supported the federal plan of Reconstruction after the American Civil War or who joined with the black freedmen and the carpetbaggers in support of Republican Party policies.

(Philippines, law enforcement, military) rogue police; rogue military personnel


warhorse

Among other accidents of that year was a Democratic president. Judge Atwood was a warhorse of Democracy.

1904 November, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Cupid’s Exile Number Two”, in Cabbages and Kings, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., page 93:

Certainly this was a bold proposal to an old warhorse like Ecuyer, and, like a true English bulldog, he voiced a reply which made the Indians wince.

1909, Charles H. L. Johnston, Famous Indian Chiefs, Boston: L. C. Page & Company, page 188:

“I don't know. I never notice much. Oh, they do kid me about not being in the army—especially the old warhorses, the old men that aren't going themselves. And this Bogart boy. And Mr. Hicks's son—he's a horrible brat. But probably he's licensed to say what he thinks about his father's hired man!”

1920, Sinclair Lewis, Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, →OCLC, page 344:

Srinath: India's warhorse [title]

2002 June 2, Kashif Qamar, “Srinath: India's warhorse”, in BBC News:

(figurative, informal) An experienced person who has been through many battles, situations or contests; someone who has given long service.


timber wolf

en-noun

timber wolf (countable and uncountable, plural timber wolves)


coach horse

(nautical, slang) A member of the crew who rowed the admiral's barge or a state barge


sulfur-bottom whale

sulfur-bottom whale (plural sulfur-bottom whales)


papillon

From French papillon (“butterfly”), from Latin pāpiliō (“butterfly, moth”). Doublet of pavilion.

The researchers tested various breeds, including border collies, golden retrievers, pit bulls, labradors and even Jackson's own little papillon.

2014 November 29, Rachel Nuwer, “Lassie gets an upgrade”, in New Scientist, number 2997, page 47:

A small dog of a certain breed having large ears.


Indian elephant

Indian elephant (plural Indian elephants)

The Indian Elephant is endemic to the region of interest, using both the Ganges and the Mekong Rivers as resources for water and bathing.

2021, Alice A. Horton, Isobelle Blissett, Impacts of Plastic Pollution on Freshwater Aquatic, Terrestrial and Avian Migratory Species in the Asia and Pacific Region, Convention on Migratory Species, page 22:

A subspecies of the Asian elephant, Elephas maximus indicus, distributed across India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, the Malay Peninsula, Laos, southern China, Cambodia, Vietnam, and formerly Pakistan.


Asian elephant

Coordinate term: African elephant

Elephas maximus
Elephas maximus#Translingual

An elephant, Elephas maximus, found in Asia.

aasiannorsu

an elephant, Elephas maximus, found in Asia


African elephant

African elephant (plural African elephants)

Coordinate term: Asian elephant

Loxodonta africana
Loxodonta africana#Translingual

Loxodonta cyclotis
Loxodonta cyclotis#Translingual

Either of two species of elephant, Loxodonta africana or Loxodonta cyclotis, found in Africa.

afrikannorsu

Loxodonta africana or Loxodonta cyclotis found in Africa


oaks

(horse racing) A stakes race in which entry is restricted to 3-year-old fillies.


macaca

From the genus name Macaca, from Portuguese macaca, feminine of macaco (“monkey”). Doublet of macaque and macaco.

This process of the temporal bone varies in size, and may occur on one or both sides. A similar formation is common among gorillas, chimpanzees, macacas, magots (Inuus), and baboons.* It is less frequent among orangs,† gibbons, marmosets, and American species (howlers, hooded apes, etc.).

1886, Robert Hartmann, Anthropoid Apes (The International Scientific Series; 52), New York: D. Appleton and Company, page 111:

(dated) Any of a group of Old World monkeys of the genus Macaca; a macaque.


kangaroo rat

Any of many different species in genus Dipodomys, rodents that move about by hopping.


modern pentathlon

modern pentathlon (usually uncountable, plural modern pentathlons)

Dwindling interest and a reputation for being outdated couldn’t change modern pentathlon. A brief video clip of a coach punching a horse at the Tokyo Olympics has altered it forever.

2021 March 11, Victor Mather, “Modern Pentathlon Drops Equestrian Competition After Abuse Claims”, in The New York Times:

An athletics event where athletes compete in épée fencing, shooting, freestyle swimming, show jumping and cross country.


bernard

Shortened form of Saint Bernard (the dog).


kunga

Learned borrowing from Sumerian 𒀲𒋙𒀭 (^(anše)kunga₂ /kunga/).

lbor

A kind of equid in ancient Mesopotamia (probably a donkey-onager cross).


kittie

Alternative spelling of kitty (“young cat”)


chinkara

Gazella bennettii, a species of gazelle found in India, Pakistan and Iran


edible dormouse

A European edible dormouse or fat dormouse (Glis glis), especially when considered as a food.

(not universally accepted) An Iranian edible dormouse or fat dormouse (Glis persicus)


fennec

Etymology tree
Proto-Mongolic *hüne-
Proto-Mongolic *-gan
Proto-Mongolic *hünegender.
Persian فنکbor.
Arabic فَنَك (fanak)der.
French fennecbor.
English fennec
Borrowed from French fennec, from Arabic فَنَك (fanak).

etymon

A small fox of the species Vulpes zerda, found in the Sahara (excluding the coast) and having distinctive oversized ears.


cachalot

/ˈkæ.ʃəˌlɑt/

From French cachalot, from Portuguese cachalote, from cachola (“big head”).

A flexible rib cage facilitates the collapse of the lungs of a diving cachalot (a synonym derived from an old French word for tooth), so reducing the nitrogen uptake which is responsible for decompression sickness in diving humans, while high levels of haemoglobin in the blood and myoglobin in the skeletal muscles carry the oxygen required to sustain long periods between breaths.

2011 September 22, Richard Shelton, “Sheep, pig, whale”, in Times Literary Supplement:


stot

Likely derived from Middle Dutch stoten (“to push”) or Middle Low German stôten, from Old Saxon stōtan, from Proto-West Germanic *stautan, from Proto-Germanic *stautaną (“to push, jolt, bump”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewd-, from *(s)tew- (“to push, hit”).
Also compare Middle English steten (“to thrust, strike, push, knock down”), Old Norse stauta and steyta (whence Danish støde), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌿𐍄𐌰𐌽 (stautan), Old Saxon stotan.

cog

Instead of dropping the golden cones safely into his bag he let them dribble out of his hands so that, in the expectancy before the violence of the storm, the tiny stots from one transfigured branch to another could be clearly heard.

1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate, published 2012, page 148:

(Scotland, Northern England) A bounce or rebound.

(zoology, of quadrupeds) A leap using all four legs at once.