Other forms: yearlings
A yearling is an animal in its second year of life. A yearling colt, sold as a yearling, yearling sales.
In thoroughbred racing the yearling sales are where most horses change hands, before any of them has raced — buyers are paying for breeding and conformation and nothing else, which is why the prices are so extraordinary. Note the -ling ending, which makes a young or small one, as in duckling and sapling.
1nounyearlingAn animal in its second year of life.
“The herd was made up of old stags, hinds and a few yearlings.”
yearling is a young animal.
Year plus -ling, an ending naming a young or small one. Duckling and sapling are formed the same way.
Middle English
yerling
English, today
yearling
From Middle English yerling, yerlyng, equivalent to year + ling. Cognate with Dutch jaarling (“yearling”), German Jährling (“yearling”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA