Weekly Word: Tantivy

Tantivy means “a gallop” as a noun, “swift;rapid” as an adjective, and “at full gallop” as an adverb. It’s also an interjection “used as a hunting cry when the chase is at full speed”.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary reports that the word may come “from the note of a hunting horn”. World Wide Words found that some dictionaries “say it imitates the sound of the hooves of galloping horses”, but it’s more likely to come from this:

“the three notes of the huntsman’s horn when rallying the riders… echoed in a hunting song of 1787 by the Irish dramatist John O’Keefe: ‘With a hey, ho, chivy / Hark forward, hark forward, tantivy’.”

Apparently chivy or chevy was also a hunting cry. But none of these words are common anymore — understandably, because neither is fox-hunting! Or is it?