palfrey
/ˈpɔːl.fɹi/ noun, proper noun
Forms palfreys Pelfrey Pelphrey
- noun (historical) A small horse with a smooth, ambling gait, popular in the Middle Ages with nobles and women for riding (contrasted with a warhorse).
- proper noun A surname from Middle English.
- proper noun A suburb of Walsall, Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, West Midlands, England (OS grid ref SP0097).
Etymology
From Middle English palfrey, from Anglo-Norman palefrei (“steed”), from Old French palefroi, palefreid, from Late Latin paraverēdus (“post horse, spare horse”), from Ancient Greek παρά (pará) + Latin verēdus (“post horse”), from Gaulish *werēdos (“horse”) (compare Welsh gorwydd (“horse”)), from Proto-Celtic *uɸoreidos (“horse”). Doublet of prad. Compare Dutch paard and German Pferd.
Metonymic occupational surname for a man responsible for the maintenance and provision of saddle-horses, from Middle English palfrey.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A saddle horse for the road, or for state occasions, as distinguished from a war horse. Chaucer.
- noun A small saddle horse for ladies. Spenser.
Etymology [OE. palefrai, OF. palefrei, F. palefroi, LL. palafredus, parafredus, from L. paraveredus a horse for extraordinary occasions, an extra post horse; Gr. veredus a post horse.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “palfrey”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details