Kim Pearson

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As described in the Dictionary of Word Origins, "The word pig is not recorded until the Middle English period, although it is assumed to have existed in Old English as *picga or *pigga. It originally meant ‘young pig’ and did not become the general term for ‘pig’ until the 16^th century (the usual word in Old and Middle English was swine). Piglet is a late 19^th century coinage. It is not known where the word pig came from, although some have suggested a connection with Old English pic ‘pointed object’ (source of modern English pike), perhaps an allusion to the pig’s pointed muzzle (if that is the truth of the matter, pig may be parallel as an animal-name with pike)." (393). Although the origin of the word pig is generally associated with the animal, the earliest date in which the word pig was used for meanings other than it’s original meaning dates back to the 16^th century. Throughout time, pig has been used to describe a wide variety of things and people. Below are different definitions that are used for the word pig other than it’s original meaning.

1. [20C] a fat, unattractive woman., [1940s+] (Can.) a prostitute., [1960s+] (US campus) a woman considered to be drunken, promiscuous and sexually available. (Green, 913).

1927 Dialect Notes V. 458 Pig, a womansottish, surly, disgruntled, stinking who has sunk to the lowest level of prostitution. The bum who keeps a pig rents her out to others. (OED)

1932 J.T. FARRELL in Story Mar.- Apr. 47 Jack told of an anecdote about a pig he had picked up once. She was too lousy and scummy to take a chance on. (OED)

1979. R. RENDELL Make Death love Me i. 16 I’m not demeaning myself to reply to you, pig. (OED)

 

 

1. pig n 1. [mid-16C+] a general insult, esp. to one who is fat, ugly and or greedy. (Green)
2. pig. noun 1a. Applied contemptuously to a person; someone obstinate, annoying, greedy, etc. (Ayto)
3. 5. a. Applied, usually contemptuously or opprobrious, to a person, or to another animal. (Cf. F. cochon.) (OED).

1960 I. JEFFRIES Dignity & Purity v. 83 I’m having a golf lesson from the Advertising pig tomorrow. (OED)

1973 Daily Californian 1 Feb. ¼ The Pentagon Papers.. ‘provide evidence of pig foreign policy. A pig is someone who attacks you and at the same time claims he is the victim’, he said. (OED)

1976 National Observer (U.S.) 21 Feb 14/6 The quick resort to the phrase ‘pig’ for the blue-collar, lower-class people who were doing the job they thought they were supposed to do. (OED)

1931 E. O’NEILL The Hunted IV, in Mourning becomes Electra 155 That yaller-haired pig with the pink dress on!

This next definition describes a pig as a slang word describing someone in an authoritative position. It was thought that the usage of pig to describe a police officer derived in the 1960’s at the time of the riots. It has also been described as a reference to George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm. However, this term dates even further back than the 1960’s. The website www.wordorigins.org explains this origin in full detail as stated,

The OED2 has pig being used as a term for a contemptuous person as early as 1546. The earliest cite for a police officer in particular is from the Lexicon Balatronicum of 1811, which defines pig as "a China Street Pig, a Bow Street officer." The Bow Street Runners were an early police force of London, named after the street that housed their headquarters. The Lexicon Balatronicum also offers "floor the pig and bolt," meaning to knock the policeman down and run. According to Partridge, by 1873 the term’s usage was restricted to plain clothes officers. The term was as underground term, part of the criminal argot, until it emerged into the mainstream in the 1960’s.

1. pig n. 3 1. [early 19C+] a policeman; thus pigs, the police as a group 2. [mid-19C-1910s] an informer. 3 [1960s+] any conventional person, member of the Establishment or authorities. (Green)
2. slang. b. A police officer. Now usu. disparaging. (OED)

 

3. pig n. an officer; a police officer or a military officer. (Used mostly for a police officer. Widely known since the 1960s.) (Spears)

1874 HOTTEN Slang Dict. 253 Pig, a policeman; an informer. The word is now almost exclusively applied by London thieves to a plain-clothes man, or a ‘nose’. (OED)

1967 C. DRUMMOND Death at Furlong Post v. 63 I had to give the local P.C. a lift. I dropped the pig at Packenham. (OED)

1970 Times 7 Aug. 4/7 ‘Pig’ is slang for a policeman and the defense says that the word ‘pig’ was scrawled over the doors of the house after the killings. (OED)

1973 Black World July 56/1 The pigs swooped by, going west, the emergency light blinking green. (OED)

 

 

Pig n. [20C] a venereal ulcer. (Green)

 

Pig n. a Caucasian. (Black.) (Spears)

 

Works Cited

 

Ayto, John. Dictionary of Word Origins. New York: Arcada Publishing, 1990.

 

The Oxford Dictionary of Slang. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998

 

The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang. Oxford & New York:

Oxford University Press, 1992.

Green, Jonathon. Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang. London: Cassell & Company, 1998

Oxford English Dictionary http://dictionary.oed.com

Spears, Richard A. NTC’s Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial. New York: NTC Publishing Group, 2000.

Word Origins http://www.wordorigins.org

Compiled by Natalie Engravido

February 28, 2002

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