Editor's Corner

This morning I received this article from The Grammarist newsletter. I had no plan to talk about horsies, but after reading this article and saying horsey, horsy, horsie out loud, it made me laugh, so I thought I’d send it along. 🙂

I hope you are having a wonderful Monday.

Horsey, horsy, horsie

Some dictionaries list horsy as the primary spelling of the word that can be (1) an adjective meaning horse-like, (2) an adjective meaning of or having to do with horses, or (3) a diminutive of horse. But these dictionaries are behind times. Horsy had a brief heyday in the middle of the 20th century, but horsey was unquestionably the preferred spelling before around 1940, and it is again the preferred spelling. This is the case throughout the English-speaking world.

There is also horsie, which is used most often as the diminutive of horse, but it is rare compared to the other two.

Examples

In Google News searches covering a large selection of major English-language publications and limited to 2000 to the present, most instances of horsy are in the New York Times, which seems to be an outlier on this issue. But outside the Times (where horsey does also appear, but not as often as horsy), horsey is the far more common spelling. Here are few examples from around the English-speaking world:

· They stock the barn with all kinds of horsey goodies: brushes, blankets, water buckets, feeders, saddles, stirrups, bridles, bits, reins. [Denver
Post]

· Slightly older but less weathered by an outdoor horsey lifestyle, Ann has certainly been busier since the nuptials were scheduled. [Sunday
Express (U.K.)]

· Horsey movies are usually buddy flicks, partnering the steed with often young and diminutive pals. [Globe
and Mail (Canada)]

· Those behind the scheme are convinced that the polo lifestyle as much as the horsey discipline will swing it their way. [New
Zealand Herald]

To see the ngram charts on this topic, go to the bottom of the article here: http://grammarist.com/usage/horsey-horsy-horsie/

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