ABSTRACT
Hack Hackney comes from Old French haquenee, ‘an ambling horse or mare, especially for ladies to ride on’, and is first found in English in the fourteenth century. Hack is a short form which appeared in the eighteenth century to describe any horse used for ordinary riding, rather than for racing, hunting, or military purposes. Hence comes the expression to hack up, meaning to win easily; i.e. at the pace of a hack canter rather than at full racing pace because the horse is so far ahead of its rivals. This sense is not found in the OED, although ‘hack’, meaning ‘to ride on horseback at ordinary pace’, is first attested in 1857. ‘Accolade … made up for a disappointing debut at Headquarters when hacking up at Nottingham next time’ (Sporting Life 28 May 1990).
