A small pony.
1835. [He was] mounted upon the little ambling pony, or tacky, from the marsh—a sturdy little animal in much use, though of repute infinitely below its merits.—W. G. Simms, ‘The Yemassee,’ i. 130 (N.Y.).
1836. [A bet of one hundred dollars] is enough for a little tacky race like this, just made for amusement.—W. T. Porter, ed., ‘A Quarter Race in Kentucky,’ etc., p. 16 (1846).
1838. An accident happening to my horse, I wag obliged to hire one of the little animals called ‘marsh tackies’ to carry me over a creek.—Caroline Gilman, ‘Recollections of a Southern Matron,’ p. 131.
1839. The first intimation of their presence was a couple of shots, which killed the peddler’s fine Kentucky horse, and wounded my Indian tackey.—C. F. Hoffman, ‘Wild Scenes,’ ii. 61 (Lond.).
1840. The Judge, who could not bear the idea of a man’s life being put in competition with the value of a tackey not worth five pounds.—E. S. Thomas, ‘Reminiscences,’ i. 64.
1846. Mac mounted a piney-wood-tacky (named Rosum) and hied him off to Charleston.—W. T. Porter, ed., ‘A Quarter Race in Kentucky,’ etc., pp. 146–7.
1856. Lacking most other ties, she loved her horse, Arab fashion—though he, a mere pony of our swamps, called in common speech, the “marsh tackey”—was no Arab, yet he might have had Arab blood in him.—W. G. Simms, ‘Eutaw,’ p. 64 (N.Y.).
1861. Every disunion tackey cries out, don’t coerce.—Oregon Argus, May 4.
1890. “Tacky parties” [in Kentucky], where the guests dress in the commonest and most unfashionable costumes.—‘Dialect Notes,’ i. 66.
1896. In Indiana and Kansas used of a girl who is inclined to be coarse.—Id., i. 425.
*** In the latter citations the word is employed figuratively, and in an opprobrious sense.
