Word.ws English Dictionary

horse and hattock

horse and hattock interjection: a call that invokes the fairies to transport someone or something.

Interjection

  1. A call that invokes the fairies to transport someone or something.
    • ...but one of their number being, it seems, a little more bold and confident than his companion, said Horse and hattock with my top!' and immediately they all saw the top lifted up from the ground, but could not see which way it was carried, by reason of a cloud of dust which was raised at the same...1835, Fraser's magazine for town and country - Volume 11, page 219
    • Archroy had noticed that his old Morris Minor, which his wife described as 'an eyesore', was no longer upon its blocks in the garage but seemed to have cried horse and hattock and been carried away by the fairies.1992, Robert Rankin, The Antipope, →ISBN, page 18
  2. An incantation used in witchcraft in order to fly.
    • I haid a little horse, and wold say, " Horse and Hattock, in the Divellis name !"1833, Criminal Trials in Scotland: 1609-1624, page 604
    • Isabel Gowdie of Auldearne in 1662[318] announced that she had two forms of words, one was "Horse and Hattock in the Devil's name"; the other was, "Horse and Hattock! Horse and go! Horse and Pellatis! Ho! Ho!"2004, Margeret Alice Murray, The God of the Witches, →ISBN

Examples of horse and hattock in a sentence

  • The Miscellanies of John Aubrey (1626-97) noted two cases involving the phrase "Horse and Hattock" and fairy levitation.2001, Lizanne Henderson, Edward J. Cowan, Scottish Fairy Belief: A History, →ISBN, page 37:
  • We would fly like straws when we please; wild-straws and com-straws will be horses to us, if we put them between our feet and say, 'Horse and Hattock, in the Devil's name!'2011, Norman Cohn, Europe's Inner Demons, →ISBN, page 158:
  • “Give it commands,” Mike concluded, “with the formula 'Horse and Hattock,' and activate it by saying three times: Horse and Hattock, horse and go, Horse and Pellattis, ho, ho!”2011, Anthony C. Gilbert, Farther Up and Farther In, →ISBN, page 45:

Origin of horse and hattock

From the Scottish folk tradition that this is the cry that fairies make when they leave a place.

Questions about horse and hattock

What does horse and hattock mean?
Horse and hattock means a call that invokes the fairies to transport someone or something.
How do you use horse and hattock in a sentence?
The Miscellanies of John Aubrey (1626-97) noted two cases involving the phrase "Horse and Hattock" and fairy levitation.
What part of speech is horse and hattock?
Horse and hattock is an interjection.

Words near horse and hattock in the dictionary

  1. horse about
  2. horse and buggy
  3. horse and carriage
  4. horse and cart
  5. horse and foot
  6. horse and hattock
  7. Horse and Jockey
  8. horse and rabbit stew
  9. horse and rabbit stews
  10. horse ant
  11. horse ants

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: horse and hattock (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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