palfrey

Middle English, from Anglo-Norman palefrei (“steed”), from Old French palefroi, from Late Latin paraverēdus (“post horse, spare horse”), from Ancient Greek παρά (pará)+ Latin verēdus (“post horse”), from Gaulish *werēdos (“horse”) (compare Welsh gorwydd (“horse”)), from Proto-Celtic *uɸorēdos (“horse”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɔːl.fɹi/

palfrey (plural palfreys)

1. (historical) A small horse with a smooth, ambling gait, popular in the Middle Ages with nobles and women.
   • 1793, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Christabel, lines 84-85 (for syntax)

     They choked my cries with force and fright,

     And tied me on a palfrey white.

• pelfray

From Anglo-Norman palefrei (“steed”), from Old French palefroi, from Late Latin paraverēdus (“post horse, spare horse”), from Ancient Greek παρά (pará) + Latin verēdus (“post horse”), from Gaulish *werēdos (“horse”), from Proto-Celtic *uɸorēdos (“horse”).

palfrey (plural palfreys)

1. palfrey

• English: palfrey