# 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: /kəʊlt/, [kɔʊlt], (also) /kɒlt/
* (US) IPA: /koʊlt/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -əʊlt

### Noun

colt (plural colts)
* A young male horse.
    Coordinate term: filly
** 1857, Herman Melville, chapter XXII, in The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade:The petty vices of boys are like the innocent kicks of colts, as yet imperfectly broken.
* A young crane (bird).
* (figuratively) A youthful or inexperienced person; a novice.
** c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], line 38:Ay, that's a colt indeed, for he doth nothing but / talk of his horse, and he makes it a great appropriation to / his own good parts that he can shoe him himself.
** (cricket, slang) A professional cricketer during his first season.
*** 1882, The Downside Review, volume 1, page 287:The bowling is more promising in the colts than in the eleven.
* (nautical, historical) A short piece of rope once used by petty officers as an instrument of punishment.
* (obsolete, slang) A weapon formed by slinging a small shot to the end of a somewhat stiff piece of rope.
* (biblical) A young camel or donkey.

#### Derived terms

* catch colt
* colt evil
* colthood
* coltish
* coltlike
* coltsfoot
* coltskin
* colt's tooth
* hog colt
* old-field colt
* summer colt
* uncolt
* uncolted
* woods colt

#### 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)
* (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

* (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)
* Colt (gun)

### Further reading

* “colt”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Middle English
### Alternative forms

* colte, collt, kowlt

### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kɔlt/, /kɔu̯lt/

### Noun

colt (plural coltes)
* A juvenile equid or camel; a colt.
* (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.

## Old English
### Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *kultaz (“plump; stump; thick shape, bulb”), from Proto-Indo-European *gelt- (“something round, pregnant belly, child in the womb”), from *gel- (“to ball up, amass”).

### Noun

colt m
* colt (a juvenile horse)

#### Declension

Strong a-stem:

#### Descendants

* Middle English: colt, colte, collt, kowlt
** English: colt
** Scots: colt, cout, cowt
** Yola: caule, caul, cawl, kawle