Hog
heaven
Last week we took an
initial look at ungulates. This week we’ll start with the observation that the
idiom hog heaven came into use about 1940, then we’ll look into a few
words that define the more hog-like ungulates.
The word swine, meaning pig, hog or wild boar,
applies too all the hog-like critters below. Swine showed up in English before
English was English, and come from the Proto-Germanic word swinan. The word sow, referring
to the female pig is closely related
to the word swine & has been around as long.
The word hog
has been a part of the English language since the 1100s. Interestingly, hog originally referred to the age of a critter, and was
applied to what we now call hogs, horses and sheep when they were about a year
old. It wasn’t until 1400 or so that sheep and horses left the word hog
behind. Within the next century hog also began to mean a gluttonous person. A gathering of hogs
has been known as a drift, a piggery & a hoggery.
The origin of the word pig
is a bit of a mystery. It was in use in Old English (spelled pigc),
& referred only to young pigs, while the mature ones were
called swine. Words for gatherings of pigs include litter,
farrow, drove, cote, sounder & team.
The javelina is also known as
a peccary, a native of Mexico and the southwest United States. The word
javelina came to English in 1815 through Spanish from Arabic, where the
word jabal
i meant mountain swine. The
word
peccary, on the other hand, entered in English in 1610 from one of the
Carib languages (most likely Venezuelan or Guianan). A gathering of javelinas
or peccaries
is known as a sounder.
What have you to say about
all this ungulation?
Big thanks
to this week’s sources: David W. K. Godrich’s A Gaggle of Geese, Wordnik, Ultimate Ungulate, Etymonline, & the OED.
Charlie, I am in love with the word piggery. It's to die for. Am immediately adding it to my vocabulary. What a fun read. Over and out. Paul
ReplyDeleteHey Paul,
ReplyDeleteMay you revel in the word piggery without finding yourself in the midst of one.
I love the word piggery, too! Drift, however, is an odd one. "A drift of hogs" is hard to picture. Maybe it's when they are those flying pigs of legendary rarity. A sounder of javelinas would be quite exotic.
ReplyDeleteHi Anne - another piggery fan. Brava to that. And I'm sorry I neglected to look into those legendary flying pigs.
ReplyDeleteOK,OK, I know a thing or eight about pigs/hogs/swine/boars, etc., having been one. Some say I still am one (at least). They mean it as an insult, but little do they know how little they know. Not only are pigs smarter than the average bear, but also apparently smarter than the average person (human or corporate). We at least now better than to conduct frequent, if not ubiquitous, war. (the average Nebraskan or Idahoan likely does not know of or wherever ubiquity, also known in Tennessee as ubiquitousness.) Nor do piggies like moi trash our environment, despite our ill-gotten reputation. Mud is merely our means for cooling off; we do not need an entire pool of formerly potable water to achieve this. I could go on, but I've probably boared (sic) my audience to swinish tears.
ReplyDeleteDearest Mr. Wurst,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the diatribe. You did a swine job.