| 释义 |
mustang|ˈmʌstæŋ|
Also mestang.
[App. a confusion of two synonymous Sp. words, mestengo (now mesteño) and mostrenco.
Minsheu Sp. Dict. (1599) gives ‘Mestengo or Mostrenco, a strayer’. The Novísimo Diccionario (1888) has both words as adjs., with the explanation ‘Wild, having no master: said of horses and cattle’. Mesteño appears to be a derivative of mesta, an association of graziers; one of the functions of these associations being the appropriation of the wild cattle that have attached themselves to the herds (Novís. Dicc.). The derivation of mostrenco is obscure.]
1. a. The wild or half-wild horse of the American plains, esp. of Mexico and California; descended from the stock introduced by the Spanish conquerors. Also attrib. as mustang horse, mustang mare, mustang pony.
1808Pike Sources Mississ. iii. 273 Passed several herds of mustangs or wild horses. 1821S. Austin Jrnl. 5 Sept. in Texas State Hist. Assoc. Q. (1904) VII. 300 Mustang horses very plenty saw at least..150. 1834A. Pike Prose Sk. & Poems 74 Lewis & Irwin obtained young and unbroken wild horses, (or, as the hunters call them, mestangs). 1837W. Irving Capt. Bonneville II. xix. 28 She was mounted on a mestang or half wild horse. 1884Encycl. Brit. XVII. 14/2 The Mexican mule, bred by a male ass of a mustang mare, is also a very hardy, strong, and useful animal. 1888B. Harte Cressy ii. (1889) I. 66 Hank and Jim ain't been off their mustangs since sun up. 1890Gunter Miss Nobody v, Sure-footed as these mustang ponies generally are. 1941Sun (Baltimore) 30 July 7/6 A Spanish vessel loaded with Mustang horses was shipwrecked years ago.
b. transf. Applied to an Australian wild or unbroken horse.
1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 315 Their time was spent in running in these swift and half-wild mustangs. Ibid. 318 His stud of Australian Arabs..would be sold for the price of bush mustangs.
2. In full Mustang grape: A small red grape, Vitis candicans, of Texas.
1846J. Gregg Diary 27 Sept. (1941) I. v. 239 There is a large species, called by the Americans, the Mustang grape which very much resembles the Muscadine of the western country, except in growing in large bunches or racemes. 1854Longfellow Catawba Wine iii, The red Mustang, Whose clusters hang O'er the waves of the Colorado. 1903A. Adams Log of Cow-boy 6 Along the river grew endless quantities of Mustang grapes. 1951Dict. Gardening (R. Hort. Soc.) IV. 2250/2 V[itis] candicans. Mustang Grape. Vigorous high climber.
3. slang. An officer in the U.S. services who has been promoted from the ranks; in quots. 1847: a volunteer officer as distinct from a regular-army officer.
1847G. B. McClellan Mexican War Diary 2 Jan. (1917) 23 ‘Mind, Mr. Smith,’ said the old Mustang [sc. General Patterson] the night before, ‘mind and appear as early as possible, so that you may not delay us’—all this with that air of dignity and importance so peculiarly characteristic of Mustangs. Ibid. 4 Jan. 43, I have repeatedly seen a Second Lieutenant of the regular army exercise more authority over the Volunteers..than a Mustang General. [1874L. P. A. d'Orléans Hist. Guerre Civile en Amérique I. 35 Le surnom dérisoire de mustang..qu'il appliquait aux volontaires inexpérimentés avant l'épreuve commune.] 1931Leatherneck Feb. 13 We have three..mustangs, two of whom are..completing their probationary periods. 1939J. B. Connolly Navy Men 172 He was a ‘mustang’—up from the enlisted ranks. 1950Time 11 Dec. 22 A mustang who had worked his way up from the ranks in 13 years of service. 1953M. Dibner Deep Six v. 35 A damned ‘mustang’. Never went to the Academy or anything. 1962Amer. Speech XXXVII. 288 Mustang, a self-made man, i.e., a Marine officer who started as a private instead of as a second lieutenant. 1971N.Y. Times Mag. 5 Sept. 11 The most decorated enlisted man in the Korean War—the mustang everybody thought was the perfect combat commander. |