The English language was studded with studs long before anyone spoke it in America. There were wooden studs like those now used in framing houses and studs that were bumps, knobs, buttons, or nailheads. And as long ago as the year 1000 there were studs in England that were places for breeding horses.

But Americans can claim one proud innovation for stud: originating the sense “a stallion, a male horse used for breeding.” An American, the Reverend Manasseh Cutler, LL.D., in 1803 wrote of “the famous white stud, an Arabian horse, called the Dey of Algiers, on the ground.” In 1845, the Knickerbocker reported, “A very large stud broke from the line.” In 1891 a visitor to America wrote, “He was a stud, and as fine a horse of his class as I ever saw.”

Somehow also in the late nineteenth century our stud (or the related word studhorse) became the name for a variety of poker. In stud poker, every card after the first is dealt face up so the other players can see it. Perhaps its exhibitionistic quality suggests the stud, or perhaps it just requires horse sense.

Late in the nineteenth century, stud was used as a term for a “ladies’ man,” a sexually attractive or promiscuous man. And by the 1920s, black Americans had generalized the usage to refer to any young man, regardless of sexual behavior, as in the 1970 book Positively Black: “But who’s this stud they call Billy?” We also learned to use stud as an adjective to mean “fine or outstanding,” as well as “manly.” Stud was one word that wouldn’t be kept down on the farm.