Colt or stallion?

[ggg-2 3,553]

In the show, when referring to male ponies, the terms colt and stallion seem to be interchangeable. However, in nature, the term is not interchangeable, as the term colt refers to a male horse under the age of four. so why use both terms in the show?

[silvadel 1,393]

Colts are for young ponies... Stallion is for mature ponies.  They do say gentlecolts though for gentlemen.  But then again we use guys and gals. 

 

I like this comic:

 

[M'aiq the Liar 5,804]

Could be used as a size differentiate in their world. As "colts" seem to be slimmer and smaller than those they refer to as Stallions.

 

 

As for why, it is probably just and oversight, or they wanted more horse sounding words for "male pony" in order to diversify the dialog a bit.

[Princess Lona 382]

I think it has to do with the rhythm of the words. They want the pony terms to sound similar to the human terms. "Gentlecolts" and "gentlemen" have the same amount of syllables but "gentlestallions" has one syllable too many. "Fillies" sounds more like "Ladies" than "meres" does, so the expression is "fillies and gentlecolts" so that it sounds more like "ladies and gentlemen".

"I now pronounce you mere and colt" sounds more like "I now pronounce you man and wife" again because of the syllables and because "mere" and "man" both start with an m.

[Astraea 8]

I agree that the term "colt" is used for young, pre-adolescent male ponies while "stallion" is used for mature male ponies. The exact age were the two can be distinguished is a bit...murky but I also think maturity itself is not something concrete and varries from pony to pony. Howerever they might base it off physical maturity...so, um, yeah. Just my two cents. Btw, that comic posted by silvadel, ROFL!

[GuillermoGage 246]

A director's commentary from an episode on the first season DVD set suggests that Equestria is quite a matriarchal society. Perhaps boy ponies are thought of being more inherently cute, widdle, young, than sister ponies on some level.

 

I think it is cute when fully-grown characters, even adult men in real life, are referred to as "boys". It is less controversial than calling a woman a girl, even tho there are plenty of obvious circumstances where it is not inherently/intrinsically demeaning. EDIT: where is it not inherently demeaning for adult women to be called girls (as long as it is not some Mad Men or construction worker situation; that's kinda icky.)

 

Like that Thin Lizzy song, "The Boys are Back In Town".

Edited July 31, 2014 by GuillermoGage

[I used to be a stranger 7,994]

This post has been redacted by the author.

Edited May 6, 2021 by Blue

[Princess Lona 382]

Colt - Any horse under the age of 4

 

I think a colt is any male horse under four years.

[FoxyCryptid 4,330]

Colt and Filly(along with Foal as a general term) seem to be the same as Boys, Girls, and children while Stallion and Mare mean Man and Women.

 

So yes, you COULD use either for adult much the same we still refer to adults and Girls and Boys from time to time.  

[A goat 323]

Colt sounds alot more awsome IMO but it's a name for young ponies, unfortunatly. And from what I've read from the comments here, the word "stallion" is a name for a grown male pony.

[Pastel 7,630]

I think a colt is any male horse under four years.

4 years? I'd rather say ~12 years old.

 

I think it has to do with the rhythm of the words. They want the pony terms to sound similar to the human terms. "Gentlecolts" and "gentlemen" have the same amount of syllables but "gentlestallions" has one syllable too many. "Fillies" sounds more like "Ladies" than "meres" does, so the expression is "fillies and gentlecolts" so that it sounds more like "ladies and gentlemen".

"I now pronounce you mere and colt" sounds more like "I now pronounce you man and wife" again because of the syllables and because "mere" and "man" both start with an m.

This, and actually maybe "gentlecolts" became a pony word that refers to every male pony: stallions and colts.

[Vixor 80]

Both mares and stallions have been referred to as fillies and colts, respectively. The words seem to have a bit a mixed use, with them being used for both adults and foals. The use in the show likely has a lot to do with how well they roll off the tongue in any given sentence, however. An example here however would be how Flim referred to Applejack as "young filly"; that's just the first one I can think of off the top of my head.

 

 

A director's commentary from an episode on the first season DVD set suggests that Equestria is quite a matriarchal society. Perhaps boy ponies are thought of being more inherently cute, widdle, young, than sister ponies on some level.

 

I think it is cute when fully-grown characters, even adult men in real life, are referred to as "boys". It is less controversial than calling a woman a girl, even tho there are plenty of obvious circumstances where it is not inherently/intrinsically demeaning. EDIT: where is it not inherently demeaning for adult women to be called girls (as long as it is not some Mad Men or construction worker situation; that's kinda icky.)

 

Like that Thin Lizzy song, "The Boys are Back In Town".

I'm pretty confident that they were kidding or non-serious about the matriarchal part, given the time in the video that it was mentioned (you have to admit that scene could unintentionally look bad under a first impression., depending on how paranoid you are), and also because the commentators are in fact directors, Hasbro execs, and voice actors, not writers. Besides, in the show, we've seen nothing but equality, with both mares and stallions having all sorts of careers and positions. With that in mind, I strongly disagree with the notion that it's matriarchal, and I instead think that it's egalitarian, at least compared to our society. The only thing I can see as matriarchal is potentially their government, which is a technical possibility given that all four current alicorns are female. I can't see their society as being the same, however.

 

Even if egalitarian however, that's not to say that there couldn't still be a fair number of mares floating around who think that stallions are cute, and I agree that could potentially be pretty funny and cute.   

Edited August 4, 2014 by Vixor

[Zygen 6,066]

Honestly, while the show typically tries to associate Colt with Boy, Stallion with Man, Filly with Girl, and Mare with Women, there are plenty of times where they mix them up.

 

They actually probably do this on purpose many times, simply because it fits better into the usage, in times where Stallion might sound weird and they use colt, or vis versa, same with females.

 

But in real life Colts and Fillies are immature Males and Females respectively, and Stallions and Mares are mature Males and Females respectively.

 

Ideally they should use them correctly, but it doesn't always work I guess. There are situations in real life where gender terms are used over others regardless of age simply because they sound better. Like with boyfriend and girlfriend, we don't say manfriend or ladyfriend do we?

 

So it really just depends on where it's used. They get it right most of the time though.

 

Also random side note, Filly is a really fun word to say, I have no idea why ;p.

[IceeBrony 251]

Honestly, while the show typically tries to associate Colt with Boy, Stallion with Man, Filly with Girl, and Mare with Women, there are plenty of times where they mix them up.

 

They actually probably do this on purpose many times, simply because it fits better into the usage, in times where Stallion might sound weird and they use colt, or vis versa, same with females.

 

But in real life Colts and Fillies are immature Males and Females respectively, and Stallions and Mares are mature Males and Females respectively.

 

Ideally they should use them correctly, but it doesn't always work I guess. There are situations in real life where gender terms are used over others regardless of age simply because they sound better. Like with boyfriend and girlfriend, we don't say manfriend or ladyfriend do we?

 

So it really just depends on where it's used. They get it right most of the time though.

I think this pretty wells covers it

 

We use "man/men" interchangeably with "boy/boys" sometimes too. There's often a "girl's night" or a "ladies' night" but rarely (I don't know that I've ever seen one) a "women's night." Sometimes one word just sounds better than the other.

 

 

 

Also random side note, Filly is a really fun word to say, I have no idea why ;p

filly filly kumquat pickle-barrel pickle-barrel CHIMICHERRYCHANGA!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wefF_UglT-Y

[Nature's Spell 526]

I like to think the writers think deeply about word usage; even if their word choice is less about meaning and more about how the word sounds. However, we as fans must guard against reading too much into what words the writers are using. For example, "girls" is used quite interchangeably with "fillies", but the use of a human word doesn't imply that humans ever existed. There is no Planet of the Horses. :-) Or at least I've never heard an official sanction of that idea. A phrase is sometimes just a phrase.