Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A small, hardy wild horse of the North American plains, descended from horses brought to America by Spanish explorers and European settlers.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The wild horse of the pampas and prairies of America.
  • noun An officer of the United States navy who entered the regular service from the merchant service after serving through the civil war, instead of graduating from the Naval Academy.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) The half-wild horse of the plains in Mexico, California, etc. It is small, hardy, and easily sustained.
  • noun (Bot.) a species of grape (Vitis candicans), native in Arkansas and Texas. The berries are small, light-colored, with an acid skin and a sweet pulp.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A small, hardy, naturalized (feral) horse of the North American west.
  • noun U.S. military slang A merchant marine who joined the U.S. Navy as a commissioned officer during the American Civil War.
  • noun U.S. military slang, generalized A commissioned officer who started military service as an enlisted person.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun small hardy range horse of the western plains descended from horses brought by the Spanish

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[American Spanish mesteño, mestengo, stray animal, from Old Spanish, from mesta, association of livestock owners, from Medieval Latin (animālia) mixta, assorted (animals), from Latin, neuter pl. past participle of miscēre, to mix; see meik- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Mexican Spanish mestengo, from Spanish mesteño ("feral animal").

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    December 30, 2008