fetlock
nounEtymology From Middle English fitlokes, feetlakkes pl, taken to be foot + lock (“tuft of hair”) but actually a misdivision of Old English -oc. Cognate with Middle Low German fitlok, fitlock (“fetlock”), Dutch vitlok, vittelokke, vitslok, German Fissloch, Fisloch, Fislach (“fetlock; pastern”).
1
A joint of the horse's leg below the knee or hock and above the hoof.
- It was the better part of a mile wide, but save for some fathoms in the middle, where the Sker current ran, it was no deeper even at flood than a horse's fetlocks.1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
2
The tuft of hair that grows at this joint.
- Derived terms
- fetlocked