Stallion

How to spell stallion

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce stallion

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does stallion mean?

1. nounAn adult male horse kept for breeding and not castrated.

Stallion in a sentence

• The breeder paid a large stud fee to use the champion stallion.

• A powerful black stallion was led carefully out of the stable.

Where does stallion come from?

Language of origin: French

The word came into English in the 1300s from Anglo-French and Old French estalon, the term for an uncastrated male horse kept for breeding. That word traces back to a Frankish root that meant a stall or stable, the very same Germanic source that gives modern English the word 'stall'. The link makes sense once you know that valuable breeding horses were kept tied up in a stall rather than turned out to work, so the animal was literally named for where it was kept. Over the centuries the spelling drifted from estalon to the modern stallion, with the doubled l and the -ion ending settling into place. Because the word ultimately rests on the same root as 'stall', remembering the double l in 'stall' is a handy way to lock in the double l in 'stallion'.

How the word is built

• stall (a horse kept in a stall)
• -ion (noun suffix)