whicker

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a soft, breathy neigh or whinny made by a horse

   A low whicker came from the mare when she recognized her handler.

2. 2
   verb

   of a horse, to make a soft, breathy neigh or whinny

   The mare began to whicker as the feed cart approached.

An imitative seventeenth-century formation representing a subdued laugh or animal sound; its horse-call sense is recorded from the eighteenth century. It may preserve an older sound-symbolic element related to Old English hwicung ("squeaking") and is comparable to German wiehern ("to neigh").

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