fetlock, n.
(ˈfɛtlɒk)
Forms: 4 feetlakk, 4–5 fet(e)lak, 5 fytlo(c)k, (7 fitlock), 6, 8, 9 foot(e)lock, (6 fotelocke), 6 fete-, 7 feetlock, 6– fetlock.
[ME. fetlak, fytlok, corresponding to MHG. fi{zced}lach, viszlach (mod.Ger. fiszloch); the formation is obscure; connexion with Ger. fessel pastern has been suggested. The word was early interpreted as f. foot n. + lock (of hair), and this notion has influenced the spelling of some of the forms. Sense 2 is due to confusion with fetterlock.]
1. That part of a horse's leg where the tuft of hair grows behind the pastern-joint; the tuft itself.
| c 1325 Coer de L. 5816 Up to the feetlakkes in blood. c 1330 Arth. & Merl. (Kölbing) 5892 To þe fitlokes in þe blod. a 1400–50 Alexander 2049 Þat foles ferd in þe flosches to þe fetelakis. 1470–85 Malory Arthur i. xvii, Her horses went in blood up to the fytlokys. 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 295 Fetlocks shag, and long. 1596 Bp. W. Barlow Three Serm. i. 21 Falling to the ground they laie so thick, that they couered the horse footelockes. 1621 G. Sandys Ovid's Met. iv. (1626) 82 Where Titan's panting steeds..bathe their fierie feet-locks in the Deepe. 1697 Dryden æneid v. 739 White were the fetlocks of his feet. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 397 This wilderness, where the horse sinks to his fetlocks at every step. 1837 W. Irving Capt. Bonneville I. 47 The horses were often to the fetlock. 1880 Browning Dram. Idylls, Muléykeh 36 Her fetlock is foam-splashed too. |
b. transf. of a human being.
| 1645 Z. Boyd Holy Songs in Zion's Flowers (1855) App. 12/2 These..dance and leap..With nimble fet-locks. |
2. An apparatus fixed on the leg of a horse to prevent running away;
= fetterlock.
| 1695 Motteux St. Olon's Morocco 171 Each Horse..is only fasten'd to a Stake and Fetlocks. 1828–40 Berry Encycl. Herald. I, Fetlock or Fetterlock, a horse fetlock. 1856 [see 3]. 1889 in Elvin Dict. Heraldry. |
3. attrib. and
Comb., as
fetlock-chain,
fetlock-hair,
fetlock-joint;
fetlock-boot (see
quot.);
fetlock-deep a. (adv.), so as to cover the fetlocks.
| 1874 Knight Dict. Mech., *Fetlock-boot..a protection for the fetlock and pastern of a horse. |
| 1856 Whittier Old Burying Ground 19 The farm-horse drags his *fetlock chain. |
| 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, iv. vii. 82 Wounded steeds Fret *fetlocke deepe in gore. 1865 Kingsley Herew. vi, He reined up his horse, fetlock deep in water. |
| c 1720 Gibson Farrier's Guide i. vi. (1738) 94 Whereon the *Footlock hair does grow. |
| 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. II. s.v. Parts Horse's Body, The Pastern or *Footlock Joint. 1843 Youatt Horse xvi. 349 A serious affection of the fetlock-joint. |