pony: [18] Latin pullus denoted a ‘young animal’, particularly a ‘young horse’ or ‘young chicken’ (it is related to English foal, and has given English pool ‘collective amount’, poultry, and pullet). From it was derived in post-classical times pullāmen, which passed into Old French as poulain ‘foal’. This had a diminutive form poulenet, and it is thought that this was the source of the early 18th-century Scottish term powny, which in due course spread southwards as pony. => foal, pool, poultry, pullet
pony (n.)
1650s, powny, from Scottish, apparently from obsolete French poulenet "little foal" (mid-15c.), diminutive of Old French poulain "foal," from Late Latin pullanus "young of an animal," from Latin pullus "young of a horse, fowl, etc." (see foal (n.)) [Skeat's suggestion, still accepted].
German, sensibly, indicates this animal by attaching a diminutive suffix to its word for "horse," which might yield Modern English *horslet. Modern French poney is a 19c. borrowing from English. Meaning "crib of a text as a cheating aid" (1827) and "small liquor glass" (1849) both are from notion of "smallness" (the former also "something one rides"). As the name of a popular dance, it dates from 1963. The U.S. Pony Express began 1860 (and operated about 18 months before being superseded by the transcontinental telegraph). The figurative one-trick pony is 1897, American English, in reference to circus acts.
pony (v.)
1824, in pony up "to pay," of uncertain origin. OED says from pony (n.), but not exactly how. In other sources said to be from slang use of Latin legem pone to mean "money" (first recorded 16c.), because this was the title of the Psalm for March 25, a Quarter Day and the first payday of the year (the Psalm's first line is Legem pone michi domine viam iustificacionum "Teach me, O Lord, the ways of thy statutes").
实用例句
1. Naomi was given a pony and taught to ride side-saddle.
别人给娜奥米一匹小型马并教会她如何侧骑马。
来自柯林斯例句
2. I had a very good 14.2 hands pony, called Brandy.
我有一匹很棒的14.2手高的小马，名叫布朗迪。
来自柯林斯例句
3. People can't even afford to pony up for movie tickets.
人们甚至买不起电影票。
来自柯林斯例句
4. She trotted her pony around the field.
她骑着小马绕场慢跑。
来自《权威词典》
5. His father gave him a pony as a Christmas present.
