Talk:horse

Plural

According to http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/horses horse as plural is also correct. I don't know how to change it though. Best wishes, John N. 17:07, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

The standard plural is horses. The Old English plural was horse (same as singular), but this usage died out in the seventeenth century, though it is possibly retained in some military usage, but rare? I will put this plural as a usage note, rather than confuse readers by showing it as an alternative. Dbfirs 17:24, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, for both the edit and the explanation. -- John N. 00:45, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

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horse

Rfv-sense 7 - a Tongan. There's some meaning of a tonga connected with horses, but this looks unlikely to me. --Jackofclubs 17:24, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

Deleted: striking. Equinox ◑ 19:05, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

Etymology 1 Sense 8

"The sedative, anti-depressant, and anxiolytic drug morphine, chiefly when used illicitly."

Shouldn't this be under Etymology 2? Wyang (talk) 11:54, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

Poor quality

This page pretty much sucks, for the importance of the word. --Stubborn Pen (talk) 23:47, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

That's very rude language to use to describe the effort people have put into the page. Tharthan (talk) 23:49, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

Well, let's say instead that I think this is one of the pages that could benefit from an upgrade, then --Stubborn Pen (talk) 23:52, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

Translations

I think all the translations meaning "mare" and other than "horse" should be removed, for obvious reasons.--Manfariel (talk) 11:03, 23 September 2020 (UTC)

Is the military sense ever countable?

Etymology 1, sense 1-4, currently:

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(military, sometimes uncountable) Cavalry soldiers (sometimes capitalized when referring to an official category).

We should place two units of horse and one of foot on this side of the field.

All the King's horses and all the King's men, couldn't put Humpty together again.

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I would argue that this sense is always uncountable. The line from Humpty Dumpty isn't using "horses" to refer to cavalry soldiers, it's using it to refer to the individual animals themselves (remember, this is a nursery rhyme about a sapient egg who can climb walls; horses trying to put said egg back together just like people do is perfectly plausible in context); cavalry soldiers would be counted as part of the King's men, rather than as being distinct from them. I honestly cannot recall ever encountering any instance of "horse" being used countably in the cavalry-soldiers sense.

As such, I would recommend changing the entry for this sense to read as follows (deleting the Humpty Dumpty quote, which doesn't use "horse" in this sense, and adding an example of "horse" being capitalized for official use):

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(military, uncountable) Cavalry soldiers (sometimes capitalized when referring to an official category).

We should place two units of horse and one of foot on this side of the field.

Lord Strathcona's Horse were highly decorated for their role in the battle.

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Whoop whoop pull up ^{Bitching Betty ⚧️ Averted crashes} 02:10, 7 May 2022 (UTC)

Oh my favourite thing, countability. I would say those are countable uses, and plural. In particular look at the one quoted above that says "Lord X's horse were decorated". If uncountable, we would say "was" (and wonder what the hell kind of mashed-up horse meat was getting a medal). It's rather like "fish": singular or plural. I caught a fish, I caught some fish, the fish weren't biting. Equinox ◑ 04:24, 7 May 2022 (UTC)

I wouldn't call that evidence of "horse" being countable, but, rather, of it being a mass noun (like, say, FBI); the use of a plural verb referencing "horse" is because the unit in question is made up of multiple individual horsepeople, not because the unit itself is in any way plural. Whoop whoop pull up ^{Bitching Betty ⚧️ Averted crashes} 20:15, 7 May 2022 (UTC)