Pony (slang)
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- For other uses of the word pony see Pony (disambiguation).
The word pony has at least two slang meanings.
[edit] Money
"Pony", in British (especially London) slang, is the term for a sum of £25. The use of it can be dated to the early 19th century. This has, in turn, gave rise to the expression "pony up", meaning "come up with money", "pay up".
[edit] Positive outcome
In recent discourse, "pony" come to represent an elusive and highly unlikely positive outcome. This usage appears to derive two separate sources, leading to slightly different meanings and uses:
The first form comes from a joke, most often attributed to Ronald Reagan, known as the "pony joke". Presidential speechwriter and author Peter Robinson recounts the joke: "Worried that their son was too optimistic, the parents of a little boy took him to a psychiatrist. Trying to dampen the boy’s spirits, the psychiatrist showed him into a room piled high with nothing but horse manure. Yet instead of displaying distaste, the little boy clambered to the top of the pile, dropped to all fours, and began digging. 'What do you think you’re doing?' the psychiatrist asked. 'With all this manure,' the little boy replied, beaming, 'there must be a pony in here somewhere.'" This meaning was utilized by authors Kara Swisher and Lisa Dickey in the title of their book There Must Be a Pony in Here Somewhere: The AOL Time Warner Debacle and the Quest for a Digital Future, published in 2003 by Crown Business Books. It is also used frequently by political bloggers, such as Atrios, to refer derisively to the Bush administration's pursuit of success in the Iraq War. Example: "So McCain/Lieberman will pretend the Dems thwarted the plan for victory, even though the president will be the one who won't let them find the pony in Iraq."
The second form is a hackish play on the stereotype of a young girl wanting a pony, and has been seen on Usenet as early as the mid-1990s [1]. The format of this usage is typically to list a series of progressively unlikely (and often conflicting) desires, culminating with "I want a pony." (For example: "I want a car. I want it to seat 5 comfortably. I want it to get really good gas mileage, and have a really good 0-60 time. I want it to small and fast and light yet able to survive a collision with a truck. I want it to cost no more than the other subcompacts. I want a pony.") Political bloggers, particularly left wing ones, have also taken to this meaning (if not the exact form) when describing seemingly impossible dreams. For example, when "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff, was indicted for perjury in the wake of the Plame affair, the blog The Poor Man ("The Poor Man Institute for Freedom, Democracy, and a Pony") posted that ponies were now "too cheap to meter"[2]. The term "Pony" is also used as a slang word by Midshipmen at the United States Merchant Marine Academy. A "Pony" is often described as a slate or reference for an upcoming test or project which midshipmen can study from.
