スコットランド語のpownyから、中フランス語のpoulenet, pony, coltから、ラテン語のpullus, small animalから、pullet, pupilと語源は同じ。後に乗馬用のポニーを指すようになった。
英語の語源
pony
pony: [18] Latin pullus denoted a ‘young animal’, particularly a ‘young horse’ or ‘young chicken’ (it is related to English foal, and has given English pool ‘collective amount’, poultry, and pullet). From it was derived in post-classical times pullāmen, which passed into Old French as poulain ‘foal’. This had a diminutive form poulenet, and it is thought that this was the source of the early 18th-century Scottish term powny, which in due course spread southwards as pony. => foal, pool, poultry, pullet
pony (n.)
1650s, powny, from Scottish, apparently from obsolete French poulenet "little foal" (mid-15c.), diminutive of Old French poulain "foal," from Late Latin pullanus "young of an animal," from Latin pullus "young of a horse, fowl, etc." (see foal (n.)) [Skeat's suggestion, still accepted].
German, sensibly, indicates this animal by attaching a diminutive suffix to its word for "horse," which might yield Modern English *horslet. Modern French poney is a 19c. borrowing from English. Meaning "crib of a text as a cheating aid" (1827) and "small liquor glass" (1849) both are from notion of "smallness" (the former also "something one rides"). As the name of a popular dance, it dates from 1963. The U.S. Pony Express began 1860 (and operated about 18 months before being superseded by the transcontinental telegraph). The figurative one-trick pony is 1897, American English, in reference to circus acts.
pony (v.)
1824, in pony up "to pay," of uncertain origin. OED says from pony (n.), but not exactly how. In other sources said to be from slang use of Latin legem pone to mean "money" (first recorded 16c.), because this was the title of the Psalm for March 25, a Quarter Day and the first payday of the year (the Psalm's first line is Legem pone michi domine viam iustificacionum "Teach me, O Lord, the ways of thy statutes").
例文
1. Naomi was given a pony and taught to ride side-sadle.
他の人はナオミに小型馬を与え、彼女に横馬の乗り方を教えた。
2.I had a very good 14.2 hands pony ，called Brandy.
私には素晴らしい14.2手の馬がいます。ブラウンディと申します。
3.People can 't even afford to pony up for movie tickets.
人々は映画のチケットさえ買えない。
4.She trotted her pony around the field.
彼女はポニーに乗ってグラウンドを回ってジョギングをした。
5.His father gave hima pony as a Christmas present.