English
hackney
Hackney comes from Middle English hakeney ‘a breed of small horse for riding upon’, and goes back to Old English *Hacan īeġ ‘Haca's Island’.
- Old Englishc. 450–1150*Hacan īeġ‘Haca's Island’literally ‘Hook's Island’reconstructed
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hakeney‘a breed of small horse for riding upon’
- Englishearliest quotation a. 1685hackney
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Old Englishc. 450–1150*Hacan īeġ‘Haca's Island’literally ‘Hook's Island’reconstructed
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hakeney‘a breed of small horse for riding upon’
- Englishearliest quotation a. 1685hackney
Earliest quotation: a. 1685, Wentworth Dillon: “his accumulative and hackney tongue”.
The story
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.
Every English word from Old English *Hacan īeġ
Today it means
noun An ordinary horse.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Old English *Hacan īeġ / hackney