Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

hackney

/hækni/ noun, adjective, verb, proper noun

Forms hackneys hackneying hackneyed

  1. noun (archaic) An ordinary horse.
  2. noun A carriage for hire or a cab.
  3. noun A horse used to ride or drive.
  4. noun A breed of English horse.
  5. noun (archaic) A hired drudge; a hireling; a prostitute.
  6. noun (archaic, uncountable) Inferior writing; literary hackwork.
  7. adjective Offered for hire.
  8. adjective (figuratively) Much used; trite; mean.
  9. verb (transitive) To make uninteresting or trite by frequent use.
  10. verb (transitive) To use as a hackney.
  11. verb (transitive) To carry in a hackney coach.
  12. proper noun A London borough in Greater London, England, where once upon a time many horses were pastured.
  13. proper noun A town in eastern London, England, within this borough (OS grid ref TQ3584).
  14. proper noun An English habitational surname from Old English.
  15. proper noun One of several breeds of compact English horses: see hackney
  16. proper noun (in compounds) (means of transportation): see hackney.

Synonyms

hackney carriage hackney coach

Etymology

From Middle English hakeney, from the placename Hackney (formerly a town; now a borough of London), used for grazing horses before sale, from Old English *Hacan īeġ (“Haca's Island”, literally “Hook's Island”). The Old French haquenée (“ambling mare for ladies”), Latinized in England to hakeneius, is originally from the English.

The senses "a horse" and "(a means of transport) available for hire" derive from the fact that many horses were kept for hire in the London borough of Hackney.
The place name is from Old English *Hacan īeġ "Hacan's Isle" (or "Hook's Island"), referring to dry land in a marsh.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A horse for riding or driving; a nag; a pony. Chaucer.
  2. noun A horse or pony kept for hire.
  3. adjective Let out for hire; devoted to common use; hence, much used; trite; mean; as, hackney coaches; hackney authors. "Hackney tongue." Roscommon.
  4. verb To devote to common or frequent use, as a horse or carriage; to wear out in common service; to make trite or commonplace; as, a hackneyed metaphor or quotation.

Etymology [OE. haceney, hacenay; cf. F. haquenée a pacing horse, an ambling nag, OF. also haquenée, Sp. hacanea, OSp. facanea, D. hakkenei, also OF. haque horse, Sp. haca, OSp. faca; perh akin to E. hack to cut, and orig. meaning, a jolting horse. Cf. Hack a horse, Nag.]

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “hackney”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details