horse-comb

• horsecomb, horse comb

From Middle English horscomb, horsecombe, horskame, horskambe, from Old English horscamb (“horse-comb, curry-comb”), equivalent to horse +‎ comb.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɔːsˌkəʊm/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhɔɹsˌkoʊm/

horse-comb (plural horse-combs)

1. A comb used by horse groomers for combing the mane and tail of horses.
2. A curry comb (comb used for brushing a horse's coat)
   • 1675, Christopher Wase, Dictionarium Minus, A Compendious Dictionary English-Latin and Latin-English […] ‎, 2nd edition, page 599:

     A Horſe-comb. Strigilis.

   • 1837, “Driving to Cover:-Portrait of J. S. W. S. Erle Drax, Esq. Charborough Park, Dorsetshire.”, in The New Sporting Magazine‎, volume 13, number 79, page 262:

     In the reign of Henry V, the service seems to have been changed to the annual delivery of a “horse comb, value four-pence.”

   • 2003, Pamela Howe Taylor, The Germans We Trusted: Stories of Friendship Resulting from the Second World War‎, →ISBN, page 34:

     After six weeks in Belgium he arrived in England with only two possessions: an aluminium horse comb and a handkerchief.

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