boar

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English bor, also bore, boor and northern bar,^[2][3] inherited from Old English bār (“boar”),^{[4][5][6][7][8]} from Proto-Germanic *bairaz,^[5][9] reconstructed by Kroonen as *baira-.^[10] The word is known only in West Germanic:^[4][5] its cognates are Old Saxon bēr (in bērswīn), Middle Dutch bēre, Dutch beer (“male pig”), Old High German bēr, Middle High German bēr and, in older German, German Bär (“boar”),^{[4][9][11][12]} and the Lombard element -pair.^[9] Klein and Weekley note that German Bär in this sense must not be confused with Bär meaning bear.^[3][13] Its further origin is unknown;^[4][5][9] Kroonen sees a word shared by Germanic and Celtic, comparing Welsh baedd (“boar”) and Cornish bahet,^[10] and Dictionary.com also suggests a link with the Welsh word.^[14] Partridge preferred to connect it with Old English eofor (“boar”), ebur and Latin aper.^[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

The male of the pig, wild or tame, if not castrated: in Old English, in Ælfric's Grammar,^[4][8] and in the Chronicle for 1087, which says King William forbade the killing of stags and boars.^[8] Barnhart dates the Old English word to about 700, the Middle English bar to 1150 and bor to before 1250, after its use as a surname about 1209.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word first applied to wild and tame animals alike.^[5][4] Wild boar became the usual name of the wild species from about 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle,^[4][5] and hunting it was thought one of the most exciting sports.^[5] From 1297 the word was applied to people of a boar-like character, and in heraldry;^[4][5] in Middle English one could be breme as bor, fierce as a boar.^[2] The meat of the animal was called boar from before 1475.^[4] Chaucer used the word 27 times.^[16] A verb boar, of swine, to mate or be on heat, was used from 1528 to 1607.^[4] The word also came to mean the male of some other animals, such as the badger, guinea pig and hedgehog.^[11][7] In dialect a boar-stag was a boar castrated when full-grown,^[17] and in 18th-century underworld slang a boar, like a hog, was a shilling.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 700 – Old English bār.^[9]
• c. 1225 – wild boar, the wild species.^[4]
• 1297 – applied to people.^[4][5]
• before 1475 – the flesh of the boar.^[4]
• 1528 – verb, of swine, to mate (obsolete by 1607).^[4]
• 1754 – in slang, a shilling.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. An uncastrated male pig.^[19][7][4]
2. The wild boar, a wild pig of Europe, Asia and North Africa.^[19][7][4]
3. The male of certain other animals, such as the guinea pig, badger or hedgehog.^[7][11]
4. The flesh of the boar as food.^[4]

Word family

• boarish
• boarfish
• boarhound
• wild boar

Related words

• boor
• bore

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
15. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
16. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
18. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
19. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins