Forms: 1–2 fola, 3–7 fole, (4 fol, fowle), 4–6 foil(e, foole, (5 fool, folle, foyl(l)e, 6 foule,) 5–7 foale, (7 phoale,) 6– foal. [Com. Teut., OE. fola wk. masc. = OFris. folla (for *fola) (MDu. volen, veulen, Du. veulen), OHG. fole (MHG. vol, vole, Ger. fohlen neut.), ON. fole (Da. fole, Sw. fåle), Goth. fula:—OTeut. *folon-, cognate with Gr. πῶλος, L. pullus.]
1. The young of the equine genus of quadrupeds; properly, one of the male sex, a colt; but also used where the sex is not specified, a colt or filly.
c. 950. Lindisfarne Gospels, Mark xi. 4. And foerdon onfundon fola ȝebunden.
971. Blickl. Hom., 69. Þonne ȝemete ȝyt þær eoselan ȝesælede & hire folan.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 89. Hie funden an asse mid fole.
1382. Wyclif, Zech. ix. 9. A fole, sone of the she asse.
1484. Caxton, Fables of Æsop, V. x. He sawe a mare and her yong foole with her.
1535. Act 27 Hen. VIII., c. 6 § 2. Two mares … apte and able to beare folis.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, IV. 746. The Priestess … cuts the Forehead of a new born Fole.
1794. Coleridge, To Yng. Ass, 1.
| Poor little Foal of an oppressed Race! | |
| I love the languid Patience of thy face. |
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., v. (1873), 128. With the English race-horse the spinal stripe is much commoner in the foal than in the full-grown animal.
Proverb.
1546. J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 27. How can the fole amble, if the hors and mare trot?
b. Phrases. In foal, with foal, (of a mare): pregnant. † Tattered as a (feltered or tattered) foal, of a person: ragged; also, rough, shaggy.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 1536.
| Som has þair clethyng hyngand als stoles, | |
| Som gas tatird als tatird foles. |
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XI. 334.
| Bothe horse and houndes · and alle other bestes | |
| Medled nouȝte wyth here makes · þat with fole were. |
a. 1400. [see BAGGED].
c. 1460. Towneley Myst. (Surtees), 4.
| Now ar we waxen blak as any coylle, | |
| And ugly, tatyrd as a foylle. |
1523. Fitzherbert, The Boke of Husbandry, § 68. They [mares] maye not beare sackes, nor be rydden vppon noo iourneys whan they be with foole, and specyally whanne they haue gone with foole .xx. or .xxiiii. wekes, for than is the greateste ieopardy.
1727. Swift, Modest Proposal, Wks. 1755, II. II. 66. Men would become as fond of their wives during the time of their pregnancy, as they are now of their mears in foal, their cows in calf, or sows when they are ready to farrow; nor offer to beat or kick them (as is too frequent a practice) for fear of a miscarriage.
1835. W. Irving, A Tour on the Prairies, xxv. 226. Among the wild horses was a fine black mare far gone with foal.
c. Applied to the young of the elephant or camel.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xlii. (1495), 803. Elyphauntes goo wyth foole two yeres.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 163. An Indian, who had brought up from a foal a white Elephant, both loving it, and being beloved of it again.
† 2. A horse. Obs.
a. 1300. K. Horn, 589.
| And horne ȝede to stable: | |
| Þar he tok his gode fole. |
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 173. Þe fole þat he ferkkes on.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 5588. Fare wele, my faire foole · þou failid me neuire!
1513. Douglas, Æneis, X. xiv. 89.
| For, O moist forcy steyd, my lovyt foill, | |
| I can na wys beleif at thou may thoyll. |
3. Coal-mining. (See quots.)
1770–4. A. Hunter, Georg. Ess. (1804), II. 158. They then become what are termed lads or foals; supplying the inferior place at a machine called a tram, where two are emplolyed in drawing the coals from the workmen to the shaft.
1835. ‘Stephen Oliver’ (W. A. Chatto), Rambles in Northumb., i. 41. Where a youth is too weak to put the tram by himself, he engages a junior assistant who is called the foal, and in this case the strongest pulls the tram by a short rope called a soam, while the foal pushes behind.
4. attrib. and Comb., as foal fair, (objective) -getter; also foal-bit (see quots.); foal-teeth, the first teeth of a horse.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), *Fole-bit and Fole-foot, two sorts of Herbs.
1755. Johnson, Foalbit, Foalfoot, plants.
1880. Daily News, 18 Sept., 6/6. A public dinner held after the Holbeach *foal fair.
1809. Spirit Publ. Jrnls. (1810), XIII. 61. He is a sure *foal-getter, and his stock are in great repute in the country.
1696. Sir W. Hope, trans. Solleysel’s Compl. Horsem., v. 19. A little before a Horse hath attained to the Age of thirty Months … he hath twelve *Foal-teeth in the fore-part of his Mouth.
1855. J. M. Wilson, Farmer’s Dict. Agric., I. 21. The foal’s nippers—altogether twelve in number, and technically called milk-teeth or foal-teeth—are easily distinguished by their smallness and whiteness from the permanent ones which succeed them.
