6860 



Etymology of 



young, and the Greek ttwAo?, a foal. It is curious that we have exactly 

 preserved the Greek form in the word idiApole^ ^. e. a young toad. 

 Pony is doubtless, as Johnson derives it, a small or puny horse. The 

 barb reminds us, by its name, of Barbary, the country from whence 

 it was first introduced. 



The etymology of cob is worth the trouble of unravelling. A cob 

 is a strong thickset sort of horse, and the adjective " cobby " is still 

 used, in the dialect of some parts of Yorkshire, as -an equivalent for 

 stout. In coiloaf, cobnut, and a host of similar compounds, the idea 

 is evidently that of size. Our word gaby (the Italian gabbiano) is 

 again of the same root, and the signification of these words, which 

 mean what we should call a " thick-skull " or " blockhead," all lead 

 us up to the original source, which lies in the German kopf ; Latin, 

 caput; Sanscrit, kepala ; all signifying head. In like manner the 

 name of the chub is derived from its large head, and the root ramifies 

 into a thousand directions, and reappears in a hundred words where 

 you would least suspect it, but in every case it is intimately connected 

 with one or other of its three leading ideas, which seem to be size, 

 strength, and stupidity. 



A dray horse no doubt takes its name from the verb to draw^ as 

 being specially adapted for the draught of heavy burdens. In hack- 

 ney^ and its contracted form hack^ we are again led back a long way : 

 through the French haquenee we can trace it to the Italian acchinea^ 

 which is a diminutive form from the Latin equus (horse); and the 

 identity of this with the Greek forms 'Ikko^ and iWoj, Sanscrit agvas 

 (horse) and ibhas (elephant), both of which come from a root signi- 

 fying to carry, may be satisfactorily established by a number of inter- 

 mediate modifications. From the same source we have hobby ; Dutch, 

 hoppe ; which is almost the same word as the Greek iWji, a mare. 

 Hobby^ as the name of the hawks so called, is one of those curious 

 instances in which two words appear to be similar, while they have, 

 in reality, nothing whatever in common. Nag is the German nake^ 

 from the Anglo-Saxon hna^gan^ our modern neigh^ a word which is 

 an imitation of tlie sound which it characterizes. Palfrey is a word 

 borrowed from our Norman ancestors, and carries us back to the old 

 days of falconry and chivalry: in French it is palefroy ; in Italian, 

 palafreno ; and is clearly derived from j9ar le frein^ signifying a 

 ladies' horse, i,e, one led by the rein^ at the hands of the attendant 

 page or knight. In the word roan it is possible that we may have 

 another instance of what I have before alluded to under the name of 

 a "pregnant" etymology; for although the reference to the colour of 



