Meanings
plural pasterns
- The part of a horse's leg between the fetlock joint and the hoof.
Below me, somewhere in the horse-lines, stood Cockbird, picketed to a peg in the ground by a rope which was already giving him a sore pastern.
1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin, published 2013, page 2271 more example
It was quite impossible to ride over the deeply-ploughed field; the earth bore only where there was still a little ice, in the thawed furrows the horse's legs sank in above its pasterns.
1918, Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude (Oxford 1998), page 158 - obsoleteA patten.
Upright he walks, on pasterns firm and straight; His motions easy; prancing in his gait So straight she walk'd, and on her pasterns high.
1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Late Latinpastōria
- Old Frenchpasturon
- Middle Englishpastron
- Englishpastern
From Middle English pastron, pastroun, pasturne, from Old French pasturon, diminutive of pasture (“shackle for a horse in pasture”), alteration of Late Latin pastōria after the suffix -ure.
More words from Middle English, Old French, Late Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian надкопитна става
- надкопитна става (nadkopitna stava)area on a horse's leg
Catalan travador
- travadorarea on a horse's leg
Dutch koot
- kootarea on a horse's leg
Esperanto pasterno
- pasternoarea on a horse's leg
Finnish vuohinen
- vuohinenarea on a horse's leg
French paturon
- paturonarea on a horse's leg
German Fessel, Köte
- Fesselarea on a horse's leg
- Kötearea on a horse's leg
Hungarian csüd
- csüdarea on a horse's leg
Icelandic hófhvarf
- hófhvarfarea on a horse's leg
Polish pęcina
- pęcinaarea on a horse's leg
Portuguese quartela
- quartelaarea on a horse's leg
Russian ба́бка
- ба́бка (bábka)area on a horse's leg
Spanish cuartilla
- cuartillaarea on a horse's leg
Turkish bukağılık
- bukağılıkarea on a horse's leg
Welsh egwyd, meilwng
- egwydarea on a horse's leg
- meilwngarea on a horse's leg
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
pastern. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pastern
“pastern.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pastern. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pastern,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pastern.
Source: pastern on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.