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definitions

shelty

or shel·tie

[shel-tee]
noun, plural shel·ties. Informal.
  1. Shetland pony.
  2. Shetland sheepdog.

Origin of shelty

1640–50; shelt (< Old Norse hjaltr native of Shetland) + -y2
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for sheltie

Historical Examples of sheltie

  • "People might be walking about," I said to Angus when he lifted me from Sheltie's back.

    The White People

    Frances Hodgson Burnett

  • I had no bridle for my sheltie, but only a halter; and Joseph rode without a saddle.

  • We could get but one bridle here, which, according to the maxim detur digniori, was appropriated to Dr. Johnson's sheltie.

  • I asked our guide, a lad of fourteen years of age, what was the average price of a sheltie.

    Letters of a Traveller

    William Cullen Bryant

British Dictionary definitions for sheltie

sheltie

shelty

noun plural -ties
  1. another name for Shetland pony, Shetland sheepdog

Word Origin for sheltie

C17: probably from Orkney dialect sjalti, from Old Norse Hjalti Shetlander, from Hjaltland Shetland
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for sheltie

Sheltie

n.

"small pony," 1640s, "Shetland pony," from Shelty, abbreviation of Sheltand, metathesis of Shetland. Or the word may represent the Orkney pronunciation of Old Norse Hjalti "Shetlander."

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper