Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Spanish ·1800s
Mustang
from mesteño
- Meaning
- A feral horse of the American West, descended from Spanish imports.
- Source word
- mesteño
- Route into English
- Mexican Spanish *mestengo/mesteño* (stray, unclaimed animal, from *mesta*, a livestock association) → English in the 1800s as American settlers encountered the wild horse herds.
- Arrived
- 1800s
From Spanish
American Spanish, not peninsular Spanish, provided most of the modern loanwords — through US expansion westward and Latin American trade.
English borrows.
Browse the full loanword atlas or explore another source language.