Pony Up - Wiktionary

Jump to content

Contents

move to sidebar hide

• Beginning
• 1 English Toggle English subsection
  • 1.1 Etymology
  • 1.2 Pronunciation
  • 1.3 Verb
  • 1.4 References

• Entry
• Discussion

English

• Read
• Edit
• View history

Tools Tools move to sidebar hide Actions

• Read
• Edit
• View history

General

• What links here
• Related changes
• Upload file
• Permanent link
• Page information
• Cite this page
• Get shortened URL
• Download QR code

Print/export

• Create a book
• Download as PDF
• Printable version

In other projects Appearance move to sidebar hide From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

Originally often poney. US early 19th century.[1][2] According to Michael Quinion, probably not from the monetary sense of pony and instead from Latin "Legem pone mihi Domine viam iustificationum tuarum" (“Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes”) in reference to March 25th, a traditional day of debt settlement.[1] This etymology has been accepted by the American Heritage Dictionary.[3]

Pronunciation

[edit]

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

[edit]

pony up (third-person singular simple present ponies up, present participle ponying up, simple past and past participle ponied up)

1. (intransitive, transitive, slang) To pay (usually a bill, debt or due). Synonyms: cough up, pay up; see also Thesaurus:pay
   • 1824 September, “Paunch Hogabout”, in The Atlantic Magazine, volume 1, number 5, page 343:Every man, save Silvy, vociferously swore that he had ponied up his "quarter:" whereupon the landlady observed that Silvy the less had not paid his reckoning.
   • 1944 February 7, War Advertising Council, “Advert”, in Life, volume 16, number 6, page 123:Know what I'd do with that dough ... if I'd the luck to have it?¶ I'd buy War Bonds—and, God, would I hang onto them! (Bonds buy guns—and give you four bucks for your three) ... I'd pony up for taxes cheerfully (knowing they're the cheapest way to pay for this war) ... I'd sock some in the savings bank, while I could ... I'd lift a load off my mind with more life insurance.
   • 1992 July/August, “Naked City”, in Spy, page 18:If entertaining TV blusterer John McLaughlin felt any contrition after ponying up a six-figure sum to settle a sexual-harassment suit in 1989, he is evidently over it.
   • 2009 January 25, Frank Rich, “No Time for Poetry”, in The New York Times‎[2]:Only then did we learn that he doled out billions in secret, last-minute bonuses to his staff last month, just before Bank of America took over and just before the government ponied up a second bailout to cover Merrill’s unexpected $15 billion fourth-quarter loss.
   • 2012 March 30, Joe Levy, “Rockers at Sea”, in The New York Times‎[3]:Fans willing to pony up somewhere between $900 and $1,400 — not including airfare or bar tab — can rub shoulders with their favorite acts and enjoy three to five days of food, music, Caribbean sunshine and extras like a photo with the band (no autographs, please).

References

[edit]

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Quinion, Michael (10 August 2013), “Pony up”, in World Wide Words‎[1], retrieved 18 January 2019
2. ^ John Russell Bartlett (1877), “to pony up”, in Dictionary of Americanisms: A Glossary of Words and Phrases usually Regarded as Peculiar to the United States, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, and Company, →OCLC, page 482.
3. ^ https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=pony

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=pony_up&oldid=86382035" Categories:

• English terms with audio pronunciation
• English lemmas
• English verbs
• English phrasal verbs
• English phrasal verbs formed with "up"
• English multiword terms
• English intransitive verbs
• English transitive verbs
• English slang
• English terms with quotations
• en:Money

Hidden categories:

• Pages with entries
• Pages with 1 entry

Search Search Toggle the table of contents pony up 2 languages Add topic