"jockey", 1632 [published 1637], antedates 1670-; also "masty"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 8/26/2010 08:33 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>On Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 8:10 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> > "masty"
>
>Related to "mastiff," given that "dog" is referenced, or mere coincidence?

The OED's etymology says "< MAST n.2 + -Y suffix1. Compare MASTIFF
adj.1".  "Mast n.2", seems to arrive though Dutch and German, and
perhaps from Sanskrit, Pali, and Avenstan, with the meaning
"well-nourished, fat."

Good guess.  Even though in the OED sense 1.a of "masty" refers to
pigs:  "1. {dag} [Not "dog"] a. Of a pig: fattened. Cf. MASTED adj.1,
MASTIFF adj.1 1. Obs." -- while "mastiff" is only a dog.  (Not plane,
nor bird, nor even frog,  But with, in Wikipedia's felicitous
phrasing, "usually ... a lot of collateral damage".)

Joel

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