bidet

pony, small horse; bidet

“Il mit sa main devant ses yeux; et il aperçut à l'horizon un enclos de murs où des arbres, çà et là, faisaient des bouquets noirs entre des pierres blanches, puis il continua sa route, au petit trot, car son bidet boitait.”

From Middle French bider (“to trot”), of unknown ultimate origin, + -et. Possibly related to Medieval Italian bidetto (“small horse”), itself probably related to Proto-West Germanic *biti (“bite; horse's bit”); or, possibly from a lost Middle French rabider (“go quickly, violently”), a descendant of Latin rabidus (“furious, fierce”), with loss of the initial prefix. Modern sense derives from analogy with the straddling of a bidet and the straddling of a small horse.