colt

English

Etymology

From Middle English colt, from Old English colt, from Proto-Germanic *kultaz (“plump; stump; thick shape, bulb”), from Proto-Indo-European *gelt- (“something round, pregnant belly, child in the womb”), from *gel- (“to ball up, amass”). Cognate with Faroese koltur (“colt, foal”) Norwegian kult (“treestump”), Swedish kult (“young boar, boy, lad”). Related to child.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kəʊlt/, , (also) /kɒlt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /koʊlt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊlt

Noun

colt (plural colts)

1. A young male horse.

   Coordinate term: filly

   • 1857, Herman Melville, chapter XXII, in The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade:

     The petty vices of boys are like the innocent kicks of colts, as yet imperfectly broken.

2. A young crane (bird).
3. (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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , 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.

   1. (cricket, slang) A professional cricketer during his first season.
      • 1882, The Downside Review, volume 1, page 287:

        The bowling is more promising in the colts than in the eleven.

4. (nautical, historical) A short piece of rope once used by petty officers as an instrument of punishment.
5. (obsolete, slang) A weapon formed by slinging a small shot to the end of a somewhat stiff piece of rope.
6. (biblical) A young camel or donkey.

Derived terms

Translations

References

• (weapon): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

Verb

colt (third-person singular simple present colts, present participle colting, simple past and past participle colted)

1. (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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , line 133:

     Never talk on't: / She hath been colted by him.

2. (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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , line 36:

     What a plague mean ye to colt me thus?

3. (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, y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC:

     They shook off their bridles and began to colt.

4. (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

• (to act licentiously or wantonly): See Thesaurus:harlotize

See also

• stallion, mare, foal, filly, horseling

References

• “colt”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• (to haze): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

Further reading

• colt on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• TLOC, clot

French

Noun

colt m (plural colts)

1. Colt (gun)

Further reading

• “colt”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Middle English

Alternative forms

• colte, collt, kowlt

Etymology

From Old English colt, from Proto-Germanic *kultaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔlt/, /kɔu̯lt/

Noun

colt (plural coltes)

1. A juvenile equid or camel; a colt.
2. (derogatory, rare) A human child.

Descendants

• English: colt
• Scots: colt, cout, cowt
• Yola: caule, caul, cawl, kawle

References

• “colt, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-08-12.