Okay, so I was messing around with the NYT crossword today, as usual, and I noticed this phrase “pony up” kept popping up. I mean, I’ve heard it before, you know, like “pony up the cash” or whatever, but I never really thought about it. So, I decided to do a little digging.
First, I just tried to solve the crossword, naturally. Used the usual tricks, filling in the easy ones, looking for patterns, you know the drill. But “pony up” was in a couple of clues, and it got me thinking about the actual meaning.
Getting to the Bottom of It
So, after getting frustrated with a few other clues, I switched gears. I figured, why not actually look up what this thing means? See where it comes from.
- First thing, the definition. popped open a dictionary ,Simple enough: it means to pay, to hand over money, usually when it’s owed or expected.
- Then I got curious about the “pony” * ,why pony? did little search and Found some stuff about it relating to old card *, players had to “ante up” before a hand, and sometimes that ante was called a “pony.” Made sense, kind of.
It all became much clear once I was checking my resources.
So yeah, that’s my little adventure with “pony up.” Started with a crossword puzzle, ended with a mini history lesson. Gotta love how words work, right?
