> Dear freemartin or 'free fumbler of fumbler's hall' my 1811 dictionary may
> help
> Or perhaps 'free and easy john'-tipple porter sing bawdry
> Or '' freeholder'-one whose partneraccompanies him to the ale house
> Or even 'freebooter'plunderer of the enemy
> With bestos from pensioner pal freezimmerman patrick
Dear Patrick the Man, I really didn't want to get into this, but here goes
...
It seems pretty obvious that "freemartin" is a combination formed from
"free" + "martin".
OED2(3) gives for the etymology of the tem:
[Of unknown origin: cf. Ir., Gael. mart, heifer.]
... and then there's the Italian and French derived "martingale" for an
horse.
So willy-nilly, the second element, "martin" (let's forget birds as an
irrelevancy) derives from the Irish or Scottish Gaelic name for a female
cow.
So why "free"?
A freemartin was (originally) a sexually distorted version of a heifer --
free, because the creature had been freed [sic] or dislocated from the
constraints of its biological origin.
OK, I admit that this is carrying folk-etymology into Conspiracy Theory
territory, but it's the best I can do.
Makes sense to me.
Honest.
The Freemartin
(36) Cotgrave (Cotgrave 1611 @ 28619814)
Camarre: [f.] [A Martingale for a horse;] or, as [Camorre.]
(37) Cotgrave (Cotgrave 1611 @ 28762305)
Cavessine: [f.] [A martingale for a horse.]
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