The use of language in the cultural sport of Foxhunting

Foxhunting involves chasing wild pray with humans on horseback and a pack of hounds following close. The magnificent noises can be heard from miles around. The hounds "cry" and the Huntsman's horn booming makes your heart race.  There is a unique etiquette that comes with hunting and as I have participated in foxhunting regularly since a young age I understand the various commands. But to an outsider of the sport, the language may be puzzling. I am going to explore the language of foxhunting to determine their ancient meaning and how meanings vary amongst other English language speaking countries.

Foxhunting was invented in the 16^th century and continued until recently when banning laws were enforced. It was a massive social event for the upper class in the 19^th century. It has been allowed to continue in places such as America due to language. A simply variation on the name from English foxhunting to American fox chasing means the government in America are more sympathetic towards the sport and the foxes are rarely killed.

Here is a table showing some of the key foxhunting terminology that you hear several times each on a hunt. I am going to morphologically analyse each word and see if the ancient meaning is close to what we think it means today.

 

Key term	Meaning of the hunting field	Dictionary meaning	Etmology-  how was It formed	How has the meaning shifted from the 16th century
Away	Fox is in the open	Distance from a place	In 16th century "way" meant to be open and "a" suggests one fox.	Road, path, course or travel.
Brush	Fox's tail	An object used for cleaning	Fox's use their tails to clean and remove flies and fleas from coat
Couple	A pair of foxes	Two individuals of the same sort together.		In 16th century it meant any two things whereas now we associate with love.
Holdhard	Stop please	To remain still	Compound Hard= solid Hold= to contain	Meaning has not changed.
Panel	Safe, jumpable part of obstacle	Piece of wood	A saddle or cushion	Meaning has drifted
Ware	Danger	Warning	In 16th century it meant to guard against	Meaning has pejorated.
Tongue	Hounds cry warns staff that the hounds are on the scent	Sound on an instrument	Meant "foreign language" till early 18C	Meaning has drifted.

 

http://www.anthony-dacko.net/3.htm

This information is interesting and puzzling to discover that even though this tradition sport has shifted massively due to ethical and social factors, the terms stay the same. I researched the meaning of the terms in the 16^th Century by using an etymology dictionary. So from analysing the various terms used in foxhunting, meaning of the meanings have shifted and now have different denotations from when they were invented in the 16^th century. It is interesting to compare the semantic meaning of terms in UK to countries like America. I furthered my knowledge of terms by using a glossary.

The most famous term of fox hunting is "tally ho", which is used to urge the hounds when they are spotted. Yet the meaning of the individual lexis "tally" means to label or score. The second component "ho" has the nasty denotation of a prostitute or is often used to emphasise surprise. This is what I find fascinating about the English language is that words or phrases mean one thing, but when you break down the individual meaning behind each word, it is not the same as the meaning of the phrase as we know it.

I have enjoyed exploring the language of foxhunting but I think I may divert my research towards meanings of sentences and clichés and why this literal meaning puzzles foreign speakers.

 

By Jazz