cavalo

From Late Latin caballus (“horse”), from Latin caballus (“pack horse”), from Gaulish caballos.

• (Galicia) IPA^(key): /ka.ˈβa.lo/
• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ka.ˈβa.lʊ/

cavalo m

1. horse
   • 13th century CE, Alfonso X of Castile, Cantigas de Santa Maria, E codex, cantiga 213 (facsimile):

     caeu con el o Caualo

     The buceta fell with him

• Galician: cabalo
• Portuguese: cavalo (see there for further descendants)

• cavallo (obsolete)
• vacalo (obsolete, humorous)

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese cavalo, from Late Latin caballus (“horse”), from Latin caballus (“pack horse”), from Gaulish *kaballos, from Proto-Celtic *kaballos, perhaps ultimately an Asiatic borrowing or Wanderwort, compare Ancient Greek καβάλλης (kabállēs, “nag”), Proto-Slavic *kobýla (“mare”), Persian کول (kaval, “second class horse of mixed blood”), and possibly Karakhanid kevel (at) (“well-bred fast (horse)”). Cognate with Galician cabalo, Spanish caballo, Catalan cavall, Occitan caval, French cheval, Italian cavallo and Romanian cal.

• Rhymes: -alu
• Hyphenation: ca‧va‧lo

cavalo m (plural cavalos, feminine égua, feminine plural éguas)

1. horse (an equid)
2. (figuratively) a coarse, rude man
3. (chess) knight
4. (slang) heroin
5. (automotive) horsepower (a unit that measures the power of an engine)

   motor de 172 cavalos

   172-horsepower engine

• Papiamentu: kabai
• → Old Tupi: kabaru

cavalo

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of cavar combined with lo