Ponytail

How to spell ponytail

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce ponytail

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ponytail mean?

1. nounA length of hair gathered and tied at the back of the head so it hangs freely.

Ponytail in a sentence

• She tied her hair into a neat ponytail before the gym session.

• A high ponytail kept the loose strands off his face during the run.

Where does ponytail come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English compound formed from 'pony' and 'tail', and its meaning is exactly what the parts suggest: a bunch of hair gathered and tied at the back of the head so that it hangs and swings like the tail of a small horse. The word 'pony' itself arrived in the 1700s, probably from the Scots 'powney', which traces back through Old French 'poulenet', a little foal, ultimately from the Latin 'pullus', meaning a young animal. 'Tail' is far older, descending directly from the Old English 'taegel', the native Germanic word for the hindmost appendage of an animal. The combined term 'ponytail' is a comparatively recent coinage, appearing in the mid twentieth century as the hairstyle became fashionable. Because both halves are ordinary, familiar words, the only real spelling point is remembering it is written as one solid word rather than two.

How the word is built

• pony (small horse)
• tail (rear appendage) = compound noun likening bound hair to a horse's tail