Filly

How to spell filly

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce filly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does filly mean?

1. nounA young female horse, typically under four years old.

Filly in a sentence

• The trainer entered a promising filly in the spring race.

• The breeder sold the chestnut filly to a nearby stable.

Where does filly come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

Filly came into English in the 1400s from the Old Norse word fylja, which meant a young female horse. That Norse word is closely related to the same root that gives us 'foal', the general word for a baby horse, both tracing back to an ancient root meaning 'young animal' or 'offspring'. While a foal can be of either sex, filly settled into English specifically for the female young, with 'colt' covering the male. The doubled l and the -y ending reflect the way the original fylja was reshaped to fit English spelling habits, and that double l is the small trap, since the single sound tempts writers to drop one. The word has stayed firmly in the world of horses and racing ever since.

How the word is built

• filly (from Old Norse fylja: a young mare)
• -y (kept in the modern spelling)