Cayoose?

[swestrup]

I could use some help from the various word wonks on my friends list. Today I heard the word 'cayoose' (which is how I presume its spelled) in reference to a riding horse. In the context I assume its some sort of slang term from the old west. Can anyone tell me exactly what it meant? Both Google and Wikipedia have been of no help at all in working this out.

Comments

[thebabynancy.livejournal.com]

In Tumbleweed the horse is a cayoose...

[swestrup]

Which tells me absolutely nothing that I didn't already know...

[thebabynancy.livejournal.com]

as far as I know... it's a kind of prairie riding horse "not raised by its mare"... but that's going by memory of something my Nana said when I watched "Tumbleweed" with her... many, many, many moons ago.


sorry I wasn't much help.

[swestrup]

Its more help than any of the online dictionaries have been.

[thebabynancy.livejournal.com]

it's twang slang... I think that originally the word is spelled differently... but with a southern accent... sounded more like "cayoose"... and was spelled like that after a period of time.


I tried to find some info on the internets... but I came up empty, too.


Desole.

cayoose

[(Anonymous)]

half-breed

[sultrysong.livejournal.com]

Probably referring to a cayuse horse?

[swestrup]

I had wondered if there was some connection to the Cayuse Indians. Thanks, that would seem to solve the mystery.

[foms.livejournal.com]

I was too late.

meaning of the word "cayuse"

[(Anonymous)]

A cayuse is a special breed of an Indian pony, but it is not a mustang. It is a separate type and very strong. They were mostly in the western part of the country, more up North, like South Dakota, etc. They still exist in California. Also my grandmother's family used to say there was a "cayuse wind" meaning a cold big wind. (I don't know how that involves the horse.) The word cayuse was also used in an old western song called "Don't Fence Me In" "Let me straddle my old saddle underneath the western skies, don't fence me in. Let me ride my cayuse underneath the starry skies above, don't fence me in." OK, I've bored you enough! I'm stopping now!!

cayuse

[(Anonymous)]

I found it in an old Lorne Greene song, "Ol'Cyclone" where he addresses his horse frequently as "...you cayuse you..."