sb. Forms: 4 feetlakk, 4–5 fet(e)lak, 5 fytlo(c)k, (7 fitlock), 6, 8, 9 foot(e)lock, (6 fotelocke), 6 fete-, 7 feetlock, 6– fetlock. [ME. fetlak, fytlok, corresponding to MHG. fiȝlach, viszlach (mod. Ger. fiszloch); the formation is obscure; connection with Ger. fessel pastern has been suggested. The word was early interpreted as f. FOOT sb. + LOCK (of hair), and this notion has influenced the spelling of some of the forms. Sense 2 is due to confusion with FETTERLOCK.]
1. That part of a horse’s leg where the tuft of hair grows behind the pastern-joint; the tuft itself.
c. 1325. Coer de L., 5816.
| That moo than syxty thousynde | |
| Off empty stedes abouten yode, | |
| Up to the feetlakkes in blood. |
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl. (Kölbing), 5892. To þe fitlokes in þe blod.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 2049. Þat foles ferd in þe flosches to þe fetelakis.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, I. xvii. Her horses went in blood up to the fytlokys.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 295.
| Round-hoof’d, short-jointed, fetlocks shag and long, | |
| Broad breast, full eye, small head, and nostril wide, | |
| High crest, short ears, straight legs and passing strong, | |
| Thin mane, thick tail, broad buttock, tender hide. |
1596. Bp. W. Barlow, Three Serm., i. 21. Falling to the ground they laie so thick, that they couered the horse footelockes.
1621. G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., IV. (1626), 82.
| Where Titan’s panting steeds his Chariot steepe, | |
| And bathe their fierie feet-locks in the Deepe. |
1697. Dryden, Virg. Æneid, V. 739.
| White were the fetlocks of his feet before, | |
| And on his front a snowy star he bore. |
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 397. This wilderness, where the horse sinks to his fetlocks at every step.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, I. 47. The waggon wheels sank deep in the mire, the horses were often to the fetlock, and both steed and rider were completely jaded by the evening of the 12th, when they reached the Kansas river.
1830. Browning, Dram. Idylls, Muléykeh, 36. Her fetlock is foam-splashed too.
b. transf. of a human being.
1645. Z. Boyd, Holy Songs, in Zion’s Flowers (1855), App. 12/2.
| Fy on these who in vanities do swim, | |
| Who dance and leap, and hold out any lim, | |
| With nimble fet-locks—but have not a word, | |
| Of holy songs to laud and praise the Lord. |
2. An apparatus fixed on the leg of a horse to prevent running away; = FETTERLOCK.
1695. Motteux, St. Olon’s Morocco, 171. Each Horse has his own apart, and is only fasten’d to a Stake and Fetlocks.
1828–40. Berry, Encycl. Herald., I. Fetlock or Fetterlock, a horse fetlock.
1856. [see 3].
1889. in Elvin, Dict. Heraldry.
3. attrib. and Comb., as fetlock-chain, -hair, -joint; fetlock-boot (see quot.); fetlock-deep a. (adv.), so as to cover the fetlocks.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Fetlock-boot. (Menage.) A protection for the fetlock and pastern of a horse.
1856. Whittier, Old Burying Ground, 19.
| There, sheep that graze the neighboring plain | |
| Like white ghosts come and go, | |
| The farm-horse drags his fetlock chain, | |
| The cow-bell tinkles slow. |
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., IV. vii. 82.
| So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs | |
| In blood of princes; and their wounded steeds | |
| Fret *fetlock-deep in gore, and with wild rage | |
| Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters, | |
| Killing them twice. |
1865. Kingsley, Herew. (1866), I. vi. 172. Suddenly the boy turned from his party; and galloping down the shore, while the clerk called after him in vain, reined up his horse fetlock deep in water, within ten yards of the ship’s bows.
c. 1720. Gibson, Farrier’s Guide, I. vi. (1738), 94. Whereon the *Footlock hair does grow.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., II. s.v. Parts Horse’s Body, The Pastern or *Footlock Joint.
1843. Youatt, Horse, xvi. 349. A serious affection of the fetlock-joint demands treatment more prompt and severe than that of the sheaths of the tendons.
