A child's toy or rocking horse, or a person riding on another's back; a playful or pretend horse.
From 'cock' (possibly related to 'cock-a-hoop' meaning exuberant) + 'horse'; appears in the nursery rhyme 'Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross' from the 1600s, originally referring to a type of game or hobby-horse ride.
The famous nursery rhyme 'Ride a cock-horse' has sparked centuries of debate—historians still argue whether it's about an actual horse, a child's toy, or even a sexual reference, showing how nursery rhymes encode cultural mysteries.
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