English
filly
Filly comes from Old Norse fylja ‘a filly’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- ‘few, little’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*peh₂w-1‘few, little’root named by Wiktionary · steps between not traced
- Old Norsec. 800–1350fylja1‘a filly’
- Englishearliest quotation 1994filly1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English filly
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1994, Susie Day, Wake Up and Smell the Lubricant: “Betty Lou began to think of Bobby Jo. That…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*peh₂w-Wiktionary, English filly‘few, little’root named by Wiktionary · steps between not traced
- Old Norsec. 800–1350fyljaWiktionary, English filly‘a filly’
- Englishearliest quotation 1994fillyWiktionary, English filly. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1994, Susie Day, Wake Up and Smell the Lubricant: “Betty Lou began to think of Bobby Jo. That…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- ‘few, little’
few, poor, fewer, pose, pause, puppy, puppet, pupil, pediatrics, pave, pedagogy, menopausal, paucity, pupa, orthopedics, posada, puerile, 29 more
Today it means
noun A young female horse.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “filly”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- / filly