equison

English

Alternative forms

• æquison (archaic)

Etymology

From Latin equīsō (“stable-boy, equison”), from equus (“horse”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: ĕkwīʹzən, IPA^(key): /ɛˈkwaɪzən/

Noun

equison (plural equisons)

1. (archaic) groom, ostler, equerry, jockey
   • 1824–1829: Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, volume 1^?, page 13^? (1891 republication)

     Once indeed, I confess it, I was very near falling as low: words passed between me and the more favored man of letters, who announces to the world the Works and Days of Newmarket, — the competitors at its games, their horses, their equisons and colours, and the attendant votaries of that goddess who readily leaves Paphos or Amathus for this annual celebration.

   • 1834, The Irish Monthly Magazine of Politics and Literature, volume 3, page 46:

     The primitive Esquires were no other than what the Latins called Equisons, who had the care and intendance of the equerries, or stables only.

   • 1893: John Hankins Wallace, Wallace’s Monthly: An Illustrated Magazine Devoted to Domesticated Animal Nature, volume 19, page 497 (B. Singerly)

     In France escuere is a stable; in England esquire was the ‛Squire of the stable. Equison was an old name for a horse jockey. We have equestrian, equestrienne, equitant, equitation, equitancy, for riders and riding; equine and equinal, pertaining to the horse; equivorous, horse-flesh eating; equinia, glanders. Equipage, as applied now to a carriage, is not derived from equus, as it might at first sight be supposed.

References

• “equison²” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2^nd Ed.; 1989]