▪ I. hackney, n. (a.)
(ˈhæknɪ)
Forms: 4 hakenai, -ne, 4–5 hak(e)nei, -ney, 4–6 hak(e)nay(e, 5 hack-, haknay, (haukenay), 5–6 hackenaye, -neye, hakney, 6 hackeny, -neie, (hacqne, hacqueneye), haiknay, -ne, -ney, (pl. hackness, haiknes), 6–7 hackneye, -nie, 6–8 pl. hacknies, 7 hacn(e)y, 7–8 hackny, 4– hackney.
[a. OF. haquenée fem. ‘an ambling horse or mare, especially for ladies to ride on’; cf. OSp. and Pg. facanea, Sp. hacanea, It. acchinea (Florio), chinea ‘a hackney or ambling nag’: see Diez, Scheler, etc. (In 1373 latinized in England as hakeneius: see Du Cange.)
It is now agreed by French and Dutch scholars that MDu. hackeneie, hackeneye, Du. hakkenij, to which some have referred the French word, was merely adopted from the French, thus disposing of conjectures as to the derivation of the word from MDu. hacken to hoe. The French haquenée and its Romanic equivalents had probably some relationship with OF. haque, OSp. and Pg. faca, Sp. haca ‘a nag, a gelding, a hackney’ (Minsheu): but, although the word-group has engaged the most eminent etymologists, its ulterior derivation is still unknown.]
I. 1. A horse of middle size and quality, used for ordinary riding, as distinguished from a war-horse, a hunter, or a draught-horse; in early times often an ambling horse; now technically = hack n.3 1 b.
| 13.. Sir Beues 1255 (MS.A.) Ac nim a liȝter hakenai & lef her þe swerd Morgelai. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 278 Tille oþer castels about þei sent tueye and tueye In aneus for doute, ilk on on his hakneye. ? a 1366 Chaucer Rom. Rose 1137 He..loved to have welle hors of prys. He wende to have reproved be Of thefte or moordre, if that he Hadde in his stable ony hakeney. c 1386 ― Can. Yeom. Prol. & T. 6 His hakeney which þat was al pomely grys. 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 580/31 Equillus, an hakeney. c 1440 Partonope 3882 A hakeney That ys swyft and ryght well ambling. 1469 Househ. Ord. 97 To have viii coursers for his saddle & to them iiii keepers with theyre hakneyes. 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VI, 165 b, The erle of Shrewesbury..because of his age, rode on a litle hakeney. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. II. 20/1 The nag or the hackeneie is verie good for trauelling. 1590 R. Payne Descr. Irel. (1841) 7 Carthorsses, mares, and little hackneies are of a very smal price. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 257 The Germans in acknowledgement of their tenure of the Papacie, gaue the Pope yeerly 8. and 40. thousand duckats, together with a white horse. The mony..at this day is paid, together with the white hackney. 1653 H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. 160 Pages, mounted on white Hackneys, having green velvet Saddles. 1678 Butler Hud. iii. i. 412 Mounted on a Broom, the Nag And Hackney of a Lapland Hag. 1820 Scott Ivanhoe ii, He rode..a strong hackney for the road, to save his gallant warhorse. 1831 Praed Poems (1865) II. 157 Do you canter down the Row, Upon a very long-tailed hackney? 1843 Youatt Horse iv. (ed. 2) 96 The hackney has many of the qualities of the hunter on a small scale. 1890 Boldrewood Col. Reformer (1891) 266 The farmer..mounted upon a stout, not over-refined hackney. |
† 2. From an early date mention is found of hackneys hired out; hence the word came often to be taken as, A horse kept for hire. Obs. (Cf. also hackney horse in 6, hackney-man.)
| [1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. iii. 175 Ac hakeneyes hadde þei none . bote hakeneyes to hyre. 1594 Plat Jewell-ho. iii. 28 Ride vpon a hired Hackney.] 1614 T. Adams in Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. xxvi. 10 It is a wretched thing when justice is made a hackney that may be backed for money. 1626 Meade in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. i. III. 231 Divers in Town got hacknies, and fled to avoid importunity. 1681 Lond. Gaz. No. 1624/4 There was a Brown Nag left by them, supposed to be a London-Hackney. 1715 De Foe Fam. Instruct. i. iv. (1841) I. 74 I'll take a hackney, and go to the Mall. |
† b. fig. from 1 and 2, passing into 3. Obs.
| c 1410 Sir Cleges 245 He had non hors..But a staffe was hys hakenay As a man in pouerte. 1600 Dekker Shoemaker's Holiday i. (1862) 9 Take him, brave men, Hector of Troy was an hackney to him. 1601 ? Marston Pasquil & Kath. i. 31 Trampled on By euery hacknies heeles. 1698 B. F. Modest Censure 26 His Criticism is..a hackney to his private Belief and Opinion. 1738 Pope Epil. Sat. ii. 140 Each spur-gall'd Hackney of the day. |
† 3. One who is used to do mean or servile work for hire; a common drudge, ‘fag’, ‘slave’. Also fig. Obs.
| 1546 J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 34 Whan ought was to doo, I was common hackney. 1584 R. Scot Discov. Witchcr., Disc. Divels x. (1886) 424 Archangels..are sent onelie about great and secret matters; and angels are common hacknies about euerie trifle. 1668 Pepys Diary 11 Feb., Which makes me mad that I should, by my place, become the hackney of this office, in perpetual trouble and vexation. 1669 Addr. Yng. Gentry Eng. 8 The idle person is the only common Hackney, and..stands ready to let out himself Post. 1712 J. Wyeth in Suppl. Ellwood's Autobiog. (1765) 405 A mercenary Hackney to some of the Clergy. 1784 Cowper Tiroc. 620 Such is all the mental food purvey'd By public hacknies in the schooling trade. |
† 4. A woman that hires her person, a prostitute.
| 1579 Gosson Sch. Abuse Apol. (Arb.) 66 Venus..that taught the women in Cyprus to set vp a Stewes too hyre out them selues as hackneies for gaine. 1593 Nashe Christ's T. 80 b, When the hackney he hath payde for lyes by him. 1611 Cotgr., Bringuenaudée, a common hackney. 1679 Burnet Hist. Ref. I. App. 278 [tr. N. Sanders] She was so notoriously lewd that she was called an Hackney. |
5. A carriage kept for hire; a hackney-coach.
| 1664 Pepys Diary 18 Apr., Myself being in a hackney and full of people, was ashamed to be seen by the world, many of them knowing me. 1695 Congreve Love for L. ii. iii, If you won't lend me your Coach, I'll take a Hackney, or a Chair. 1729 Mrs. Pendarves in Mrs. Delany's Life & Corr. 141 We were in no bustle of coaches, for no hackneys were allowed to pass. 1825 Hone Every-day Bk. I. 1460 He jumped into a Hackney. |
II. attrib. and Comb.
6. a. In apposition, as hackney horse = senses 1 and 2; so, hackney jade, hackney mare, hackney post-horse, hackney stallion, hackney steed; also (in analogous sense) hackney ass, hackney mule, and transf., hackney-devil.
| 1506 Sir R. Guylforde Pilgr. 78 The next daye, Tewysday..we toke our sayd hakney horses and rode to Vyncencia. 1556 Withals Dict. (1568) 16 a/1 A hackney horse or horse to be hyred, equus meritorius. 1598 Hakluyt Voy. I. 400 (R.) There they use to put out their women to hire as we do here hakney horses. 1600 J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa i. 25 Their horses of the countrey-breed are..small hackney-jades. Ibid. ii. 203 Great store of hackney-mules, and asses are kept for travellers to ride upon. 1667 Davenant & Dryden Tempest iv. iii. Syc. How wilt thou carry me thither? Steph. Upon a hackney-devil of thy mother's. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 150/1 Hackney or Saddle Horses are such as man useth to ride upon for the ease of his Body. 1703 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1721) 130 Here are Hackney Asses always standing ready equipp'd for hire. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 509 ¶8 Mr. Tobias Hobson..was the first in this island who let out hackney horses. 1884 Hackney Stud Bk. I. 33 The Modern Hackney Horse may be said to have been the product of the eighteenth century. |
b. attrib. Of or pertaining to a hackney (horse), as hackney hire, hackney pace, hackney saddle, hackney stable, hackney stud, etc.
| 1379 MS. Hostill. Roll, Durh., In uno Hakenay-sadyll empt. vjs. viijd. 1467 Mann. & Househ. Exp. 389 A new hakeney sadylle prise v.s. 1598 B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. iii. v, Out of the old hackney pace, to a fine easie amble. 1659 T. Pecke Parnassi Puerp. 56 What for Hackney-hire, was given you. 1754 Foote Knights i. Wks. 1799 I. 70 That year the hackney-stable was built. 1809 British Press 5 Apr. in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1810) XIII. 60 [A mare] only of hackney size. 1884 (title) Hackney Stud Book. |
c. Plying for hire, as hackney-carriage, -chair, -coach; also hackney-boat, hackney chariot.
| 1711 Addison Spect. No. 130 ¶4 The..Hackney-boat, which carries Passengers from Leyden to Amsterdam. 1813–14 Act 54 Geo. III, c. 147 (title), An Act..for authorizing the licensing of a limited Number of Hackney Chariots. 1825 C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I. 382 Expecting to have met with a hackney rattler, but not one was to be found upon the stand. |
† 7. a. In apposition, or as adj. Doing or ready to do work for hire, hireling (also fig.); as hackney author, hackney clerk, hackney fiddler, hackney gladiator, hackney libeller, hackney preacher, hackney scribbler, hackney sonneteer, hackney tutor, hackney writer, etc.; also hackney pen, hackney tongue. b. attrib. or as adj. Done by a ‘hackney’ or for hire, as hackney job, hackney writing. Obs.
| 1589 R. Harvey Pl. Perc. (1860) 11 Is it conscience or lucre, that spurgals thy hackney pen? 1660 Wood Life (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) I. 361 There were some hackney preachers in the University at this time. 1666 W. Boghurst Loimographia 66 Your wild, wanton, hackney fiddlers. 1681 Hickeringill Vind. Naked Truth ii. 7 A glib Hackney-Tongue he had in his head. 1709 Pope Ess. Crit. 419 Some starved hackny sonneteer. a 1719 Addison Lover No. 39 (Jod.) Booksellers, who set their hackney writers at work for so much a sheet. 1719 Bolingbroke in Swift's Lett. (1766) II. 4 What hackney gladiator can you find, By whom the Olympic crown would be declin'd? a 1734 North Exam. i. i. §7 (1740) 18 The Hackney Libellers of the Faction. c 1762 Lloyd Fam. Ep. in Chalmers Eng. Poets (1810) XV. 118, I must serve some hackney job. c 1766 Burke Tracts Popery Laws Wks. IX. 336 As hackney Clerks, at the miserable salary of 7s. a week. |
† c. Prostitute. hackney-woman, a bawd. Obs.
| 1616 R. C. Times' Whistle vi. 2719 Olde hackny women, they hire out their jades. 1647 R. Stapylton Juvenal 36 Hackney-wenches, that ith circus stand. 1678 Butler Hud. iii. i. 892 No more than every Lover Does from his Hackney-Lady suffer. |
† B. as adj. Worn out, like a hired horse, by indiscriminate or vulgar use; threadbare, trite, commonplace; hackneyed. Obs.
| 1596 Nashe Saffron Walden 151 A hackney prouerb in mens mouths euer since K. Lud was a little boy. a 1625 Fletcher Woman pleased i. i, Law..Her rules and precepts..pamper'd up to cozen him that bought her, When she herself was a hackney, lame, and founder'd. 1714 J. Walker Suffer. Clergy 82 The most common and hackney charge in this kind was Tavern haunting and common swearing. 1738 Warburton Div. Legat. App. 37 One of his hackney fallacies that run from the end of the book to the other. 1792 W. Boys Coll. Hist. Sandwich 293 note, The hackney-imputations of drunkeness and swearing. |
▪ II. ˈhackney, v.
Now rare exc. in hackneyed ppl. a., q.v. [f. hackney n.]
1. trans. To make a hackney of; to use (a horse) as a hack, for general riding purposes; = hack v.3 3 a.
| 1577 Stanyhurst Descr. Irel. in Holinshed Chron. (1587) II. 20/1 These horses are best for skirmishes, not for travelling, for their stomachs are such, as they disdaine to be hacknied. 1848 A. B. Evans Leicestersh. Words, Phrases, etc. s.v., He'll do very well to drive, but he's not any longer safe to hackney. |
| fig. 1581 Sidney Astr. & Stella cii, Galens adoptiue sonnes, who by a beaten way Their iudgements hackney on, the fault of [later edd. on] sicknesse lay. |
b. fig. To use as a ‘hack’.
| 1837 Blackw. Mag. XLI. 277 Hackneyed or spit upon, as the caprice or expediency of the moment prevailed. |
† 2. trans. To mount (any one) on a hackney.
| 1636 Massinger Gt. Dk. Florence iv. i, A coach for my money! and that the courtezans know well: Their riding so makes them last three years longer Than such as are hacknied. |
† 3. intr. To ride in a hackney-carriage. In quot. to hackney it. Obs.
| 1684 Philo Pater Observ. Reproved 6 He..must Trudge on Ten-Toes or Hackney it to Sams Coffee-House. |
† 4. trans. To convey in a hackney-carriage.
| 1784 Cowper Task ii. 652 To her who..Is hackneyed home unlackeyed. |
† 5. fig. To drive hard; to post; to hurry. Also intr. (for refl.) To run hard, race. Obs.
| 1617 J. Moore Mappe Mans Mortal. iii. iii. 201 The minutes that hackney at the heeles of time, runne not so fast away. 1631 Quarles Div. Poems, Samson (1717) 241 How are thy Angels hackney'd up and down To visit man? 1676 Marvell Hist. Ess. Wks. III. 127 Both men and horses and leather being hackneyed, jaded, and worn out upon the errand of some contentious and obstinate bishop. 1781 Cowper Retirement 1 Hackneyed in business, wearied at that oar. 1798 W. Hutton Autobiog. 41, I had.. paid two shillings for a ticket, been hackneyed through the rooms with violence..and came away completely disappointed. |
† 6. To let out for hire. Also intr. for pass. Obs.
| 1622 Massinger & Dekker Virg. Mart. ii. iii, I know women sell themselves daily, and are hacknied out for silver. 1643 G. Wilde Serm. at St. Maries 11 Could they have the heart to hackny out this Kingdome. 1679 M. Prance True Narr. Pop. Plot 36 Hackneying forth of Masses for Twelve-pence apiece. c 1736 Savage Poet's Depend. on Statesm. 26 No will to hackney out polemic strain. |
7. To make common by indiscriminate everyday usage; to render too familiar, vulgar, trite, or commonplace. Also with out, about, upon.
| 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. ii. 40 So common hackney'd in the eyes of men. 1739 Cibber Apol. iv. 78 Plays come to be so hackney'd out, the best Actors will soon feel that the Town has enough of them. 1787 ‘G. Gambado’ Acad. Horsemen (1809) 5, I have had some difficulty in fixing upon a title for my work: A Vade Mecum is quite hacknied out. 1817 W. Irving Life & Lett. (1864) I. 392, I should not like to have my name hackneyed about among the office-seekers and office-givers at Washington. 1823 T. Jefferson Writ. (1830) IV. 376. 1869 Goulburn Purs. Holiness viii. 71 Like a popular air..hackneyed upon every street-organ. |
† b. To undo the freshness or delicacy of. Obs.
| 1785 Eugenius II. 28 Young men..who have been hackneyed, from their very infancy, in some of our public seminaries. 1787 T Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 241 Their first and most delicate passions are hackneyed on unworthy objects here. 1792 M. Wollstonecraft Rights Wom. vi. 268 To despise the sensibility that had been excited and hackneyed in the ways of women whose trade was vice. 1808 Edin. Rev. XI. 452 Employments which hackney the minds of the other sex. |
8. To render habituated, practised, or experienced in: often with dyslogistic connotation.
| 1751 Smollett Per. Pic. (1779) IV. xci. 91 Hackneyed as he was in the ways of life. 1801 M. Edgeworth Good French Governess (1832) 100 Hackneyed in the common language of conversation. 1810 J. Porter Scot. Chiefs lix. 376 Long hackneyed in secret gallantries. 1838 Lytton Alice 27 Persons a little hackneyed in the world. |
Hence ˈhackneying vbl. n. and ppl. a. (in quot. attrib.): also ˈhackneyer, one who hackneys.
| 1801 Southey Lett. (1856) I. 181 He begins to discover that hackneying authorship is not the way to be great. 1849 J. Wilson Christopher under Canvass in Blackw. Mag. LXVI. 254 Every hackneyer of this phrase. |