Palfrey
name, noun ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A small horse with a smooth, ambling gait, popular in the Middle Ages with nobles and women for riding (contrasted with a warhorse). historical
"Five warriors seiz'd me yestermorn, / Me, even me, a maid forlorn: / They choked my cries with force and fright, / And tied me on a palfrey white. / The palfrey was as fleet as wind, / And they rode furiously behind."
- 2 especially a light saddle horse for a woman wordnet
- 1 A surname from Middle English. countable, uncountable
- 2 A suburb of Walsall, Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, West Midlands, England (OS grid ref SP0097). countable, uncountable
Example
More examples"The seneschal rode in advance with two heralds, followed by the duchess in a riding-habit of green silk, mounted upon a beautiful palfrey."
Etymology
From Middle English palfrey, from Anglo-Norman palefrei (“steed”), from Old French palefroi, palefreid, 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 *uɸoreidos (“horse”). Doublet of prad. Compare Dutch paard and German Pferd.
Metonymic occupational surname for a man responsible for the maintenance and provision of saddle-horses, from Middle English palfrey.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.