Talk:Hackney horse

This article states, "The breed takes its name from the Hackney area of London, England...."

However, another article in Wikipedia on the Hackney carriage states, "The name hackney derives not from the borough of Hackney in London, but from the French word haquenée (an ambling horse or hack) referring to the horses which pulled the original carriages."

Richmess 19:56, 19 April 2007 (UTC)richmess

The word "Hackney", as it pertains to the breed of horse, was not named after a region of London. It is thought to have evolved from the old Norman/French word "haquenée" (see definition, above.)

Fine. But is there a direct link between Hackney (horse) and the original Hackney carriage? Was the carriage originally pulled by Hackney horses? Or were the horses bred to pull the carriages? Or is it just a shared reference back to French? --Rumping (talk) 15:21, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

Hmm. But I've seen a couple of sources that say the French word haquenée is a 'loan word from English', which strikes me as much more likely. According to Partridge (Origins 1958) the town of Hackney was known for horse breeding long enough ago for there to have been an Anglo-Latin term hakeneius meaning 'a horse from Hackney'. The English word 'hackney' was in use in the 14th century, and Chambers Dictionary of Etymology notes reference to hiring Hackney ponies in Piers Plowman, circa 1387. To believe that horses hired from Hackney might be called 'hackneys' after a French word haquenée strikes me as rather complicated compared to accepting the obvious. It is, at any rate, for those people who assert that the word haquenée is older to cite some sources more reliable than that old fraud "it is thought". Grubstreet (talk) 20:41, 23 May 2010 (UTC) Oh, and I'm not aware of any reference to Hackney carriages until the 17th century, so I would suggest that the idea of the horses being named after the carriages is a complete dead end.

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