Hack (or Hackney), subs. (old: now recognised).—1. A person or thing let out for promiscuous use: e.g., a horse, a whore, a literary drudge. Whence (2) a coach that plies for hire; (3) (stables’) a horse for everyday use, as offered to one for a special purpose—hunting, racing, polo. (4) (Cambridge Univ.), see quot. 1803. Also Hackster.
1383. Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, 16,027. His Hakeney, which that was a pomele gris.
1540. Lyndsay, Satyre of the thrie Estaits, 3237. I may finde the Earle of Rothus best hacknay. [[244]]
1582. Hakluyt, Voyages, i., 400. There they use to put out their women to hire as we do here hackney horses.
1594. Shakspeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost, iii., 1. The hobby-horse is but a colt, and your love perhaps a hackney.
1594. Nashe, Unf. Traveller, 101 (Chiswick Press, 1890). Out whore, strumpet, sixpenny hackster, away with her to prison!
1672. Ray, Proverbs. Hackney mistress, hackney maid.
1678. Butler, Hudibras, pt. iii., c. 1. That is no more than every lover Does from his hackney-lady suffer.
1690. B. E., Cant. Crew, s.v. Hacks, or Hackneys, Hirelings. Ibid., Hackney Horses. Ibid., Hackney Scribblers. Ibid., Hackney Whores, Common Prostitutes.
1738. Pope, Ep. to Sat. Shall each spurgall’d hackney of the day, Or each new pension’d sycophant, pretend To break my windows?