horsetail

English

a horsetail (plant) (Equisetum telmateia)

From Middle English horsetaile, horstaile, equivalent to horse +‎ tail.

horsetail (plural horsetails)

Used other than with a figurative or idiomatic meaning: see horse,‎ tail. The tail of a horse.
Any of various simple vascular plants, of the order Equisetales, that have hollow stems and produce spores.
A Turkish standard denoting rank.
Commanders were distinguished by the number of horsetails carried before them. The sultan had seven, the grand vizier five, and the pashas three, two, or one.
A mare's tail, a water plant in genus Hippuris.
Any waterfall, the descending water of which maintains contact with bedrock most of the time.
(anatomy) cauda equina, a bundle of nerve fibers.
(rare) A ponytail hairstyle.
- 2011, George Romero, The Rescue (page 160)
  They were psychic mediums that wore a horsetail hairstyle. They believed that their long hair acted as cosmic antennae to receive alien communication from beyond.
- 2012, Clayton Emery, Mortal Consequences: Forgotten Realms
  The woman was tall and rail-thin, bony across the shoulders and breast, with arms and legs of wire and gristle. A fighter, she wore the traditional haircut, shaved temples, roach of hair tugged back in a horsetail.

Terms derived from horsetail

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