colt
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
[edit ]
Etymology
[edit ]From Middle English colt , from Old English colt , from Proto-Germanic *kultaz ("plump; stump; thick shape, bulb"), from Proto-Indo-European *gelt- ("something round, pregnant belly, child in the womb"), from *gel- ("to ball up, amass"). Cognate with Faroese koltur ("colt, foal") Norwegian kult ("treestump"), Swedish kult ("young boar, piglet, boy, lad") / Swedish kulting ("piglet"). Related to child .
Pronunciation
[edit ]- (Received Pronunciation ) IPA (key): /kəʊlt/, [kɔʊlt], (doll–dole merger ) /kɒlt/
- (Standard Southern British ) IPA (key): /kəwlt/, [kɔwlt], (doll–dole merger ) /kɔlt/
- (US ) IPA (key): /koʊlt/
- (Scotland ) IPA (key): /kolt/
- (Wales , without the toe–tow merger ) IPA (key): /koult/
- Rhymes: -əʊlt
- Homophone: cult (gulf–golf merger , doll–dole merger )
Noun
[edit ]colt (plural colts )
- A young male horse or similar young male equine, especially just after birth or less than a year old.
- Hypernyms: foal < equine < equid < ungulate < mammal < vertebrate < animal < organism < creature
- Coordinate terms: filly (female foal); stallion (male adult), mare (female adult)
- 1857, Herman Melville, chapter XXII, in The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade :
- The petty vices of boys are like the innocent kicks of colts, as yet imperfectly broken.
- A young crane (bird).
- (figuratively ) A youthful or inexperienced person; a novice.
- c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, "The Merchant of Venice", in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [...] (First Folio), London: [...] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], line 38:
- Ay, that's a colt indeed, for he doth nothing but / talk of his horse, and he makes it a great appropriation to / his own good parts that he can shoe him himself.
- (nautical , historical ) A short piece of rope once used by petty officers as an instrument of punishment.
- (obsolete , slang ) A weapon formed by slinging a small shot to the end of a somewhat stiff piece of rope.
- (biblical ) A young camel or donkey.
Derived terms
[edit ]Translations
[edit ]young male horse
- Albanian: mëz (sq)
- Armenian: մտրուկ (hy) (mtruk), քուռակ (hy) (kʻuṙak)
- Aromanian: mãndzu m
- Asturian: potru (ast) m
- Bulgarian: жребче́ (bg) m (žrebčé)
- Catalan: poltre (ca) m
- Chinese:
- Czech: hříbě (cs) n
- Dutch: hengstveulen (nl) n
- Esperanto: ĉevalido
- Faroese: koltur n
- Finnish: varsa (fi) , orivarsa
- French: poulain (fr) m
- Frisian:
- North Frisian: Plāg (Sylt)
- Galician: poldro (gl)
- German: Hengstfohlen (de) n, männliches Fohlen n, männliches Füllen n, Hengstfüllen n
- Greek:
- Hungarian: méncsikó
- Ido: kavalyunulo (io)
- Irish: bromach m
- Italian: puledro (it) m
- Japanese: 雄の子馬 (osu no kouma)
- Latgalian: kumeļs m
- Latin: equuleus m
- Latvian: kumeļš m
- Lithuanian: kumeliukas m
- Macedonian: ждребе n (ždrebe)
- Malay: kuda jantan muda
- Maltese: mohor m, felu m
- Megleno-Romanian: mǫndz m
- Mongolian: даага (mn) (daaga)
- Navajo: łéʼéyázhí
- Occitan: polin (oc)
- Plautdietsch: Falm n
- Polish: źrebak (pl) m, ogierek m
- Portuguese: potro (pt) m, poldro (pt) m
- Punjabi: ਵਛੇਰਾ (pa) m (vacherā)
- Romanian: mânz (ro) m
- Russian: жеребёнок (ru) m (žerebjónok) (colt of filly), жере́бчик (ru) m (žerébčik)
- Scottish Gaelic: capall m, bromach m, loth f, lothag f, searrach m, biorach(-eich) m
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Sikkimese: རྟི་གི (rti gi)
- Slovene: žrebe (sl) n
- Sorbian:
- Lower Sorbian: žrěbc m
- Spanish: potranco (es) m, potro (es) m
- Swedish: unghäst (sv) c, fåle (sv) c (archaic)
- Taos: kòwʼȕʼúna
- Turkish: tay (tr)
- Ukrainian: лоша́ n (lošá)
- Unami: nehënaonkètët
- Volapük: hijevodül (vo)
- Welsh: ebol (cy) m
- Wolof: mol mi
- Zazaki: estor (diq)
novice
References
[edit ]- (weapon): John Camden Hotten (1873), The Slang Dictionary[1]
Verb
[edit ]colt (third-person singular simple present colts , present participle colting , simple past and past participle colted )
- (obsolete , transitive ) To horse; to get with young.
- 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, "The Tragedie of Cymbeline", in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [...] (First Folio), London: [...] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv], line 133:
- Never talk on't: / She hath been colted by him.
- (obsolete , transitive ) To befool.
- c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, "The First Part of Henry the Fourth, [...]", in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [...] (First Folio), London: [...] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], line 36:
- What a plague mean ye to colt me thus?
- (intransitive ) To frisk or frolic like a colt; to act licentiously or wantonly.
- 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande [...] , Dublin: [...] Societie of Stationers, [...], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland [...] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: [...] Society of Stationers, [...] Hibernia Press, [...] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC:
- They shook off their bridles and began to colt.
- (obsolete , slang , transitive ) To haze (a new recruit), as by charging a new juryman a "fine" to be spent on alcoholic drink, or by striking the sole of his foot with a board, etc.
- 1849, The Lancet, page 53:
- We watched our opportunity, seized him, and, laying him across a chest, we colted him with a boot-jack until we nearly killed him, he at the time suffering from numerous boils in the nates; and for all this he obtained no redress!
- 1923, Notes and Queries, page 153:
- [...] his first appearance the jury duly "colted" him.
Synonyms
[edit ]- (to act licentiously or wantonly): See Thesaurus:harlotize
See also
[edit ]References
[edit ]- "colt", in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary , Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- (to haze): John Camden Hotten (1873), The Slang Dictionary[2]
Further reading
[edit ]Anagrams
[edit ]French
[edit ]Noun
[edit ]colt m (plural colts )
- Colt (gun)
Further reading
[edit ]- "colt", in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012
Middle English
[edit ]Alternative forms
[edit ]Etymology
[edit ]From Old English colt , from Proto-Germanic *kultaz .
Pronunciation
[edit ]Noun
[edit ]colt (plural coltes )
Descendants
[edit ]References
[edit ]- "colt, n.", in MED Online , Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 12 August 2018.
Old English
[edit ]Etymology
[edit ]From Proto-Germanic *kultaz ("plump; stump; thick shape, bulb"), from Proto-Indo-European *gelt- ("something round, pregnant belly, child in the womb"), from *gel- ("to ball up, amass").
Pronunciation
[edit ]Noun
[edit ]m ?
- colt (a juvenile horse)
Declension
[edit ]Strong a-stem:
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | colt | coltas |
| accusative | colt | coltas |
| genitive | coltes | colta |
| dative | colte | coltum |
Descendants
[edit ]Spanish
[edit ]Etymology
[edit ]Borrowed from English Colt , named after American inventor Samuel Colt (1814–1862). First attested in late 19th c.
Pronunciation
[edit ]Noun
[edit ]colt m (plural colts )
Further reading
[edit ]- "colt", in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
- "colt", in Diccionario histórico de la lengua española [Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española ], launched 2013, →ISSN
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=colt&oldid=92748458"
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
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- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
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- Rhymes:English/əʊlt
- Rhymes:English/əʊlt/1 syllable
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- en:Cricket
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- en:Nautical
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- en:Bible
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- en:Baby animals
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- enm:Baby animals
- enm:Equids
- enm:Horses
- Old English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Old English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Old English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Old English/olt
- Rhymes:Old English/olt/1 syllable
- Old English lemmas
- Old English nouns
- Old English masculine a-stem nouns
- ang:Baby animals
- ang:Horses
- Spanish terms borrowed from English
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- Rhymes:Spanish/olt
- Rhymes:Spanish/olt/1 syllable
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish nouns
- Spanish countable nouns
- Spanish masculine nouns
- es:Firearms