hog

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hogge,^[2][3] inherited from Old English hogg, also hocg,^[4][5][6] a word not found in the other Germanic languages.^[7] Its origin is unknown.^[8][4][7] Several dictionaries suggest a Celtic source, comparing Welsh hwch (“sow”) and Cornish hoch (“pig, sow”),^{[9][3][10][6][11]} and Holthausen derives it from British or Old Cornish hoch;^[12] Barnhart also cites Breton houc'h (“hog”).^[13] The OED, however, finds a borrowing from Old Welsh huch (“pig, swine”) or Old Cornish hoch unlikely on phonological grounds, unless the form was changed by association with other animal names ending in “-cga” or “-gga”, such as dog,^[8] and Barnhart and Etymonline also doubt it.^[13][2] The Welsh and Cornish words come from the same Indo-European base as sow.^[8][9] Weekley thought it perhaps related to hag, to cut, on the assumption that it first meant a castrated animal,^[14] a suggestion the OED considers far from certain.^[8] Medieval Latin hoggus (“hog, castrated boar; young sheep”), from the 12th century in British sources, is probably taken from English.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A domestic pig reared for slaughter, especially a castrated male: in Old English farm accounts from Ely.^[8][4] Barnhart finds it in the surname Hog in 1174–80 and in Kyng Alisaunder probably before 1300,^[13] and Etymonline sees it implied in the late 12th century in hoggaster.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Farmers have long used hog (often spelt hogg) for a young sheep before its first shearing, from 1306 in English and earlier in Medieval Latin,^[8][13] and dialects also used it for other farm animals in their second year.^[8][14] Ayto and Etymonline take this to mean that the word first described an animal's age rather than its kind,^[15][2] but the OED reads the early evidence as showing that it meant a pig from the start, and that the sheep and other animals are extensions.^[8] It was applied to the hedgehog and other animals thought to look like pigs from 1340,^[8] and to the wild boar by the late 15th century.^[2][8] A greedy, coarse or dirty person has been called a hog since about 1400, in Wycliffe,^[13][2] and a road hog since 1886, whence hog for a person who ignores other people's convenience.^[2] Since 1967 hog has also been a name for a Harley-Davidson motorcycle,^[2] and old thieves' slang used it for a shilling, from a pig on the coin.^[16] The verb was nautical at first: to scrub a ship's bottom (1651) and, of a ship, to arch in the middle like a hog's back (1727).^[8] It was used for cropping a horse's mane in 1769,^[8][2][3] for eating greedily in 1836, and for taking more than one's share in 1884, in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn.^[8][2][13] Go the whole hog is American from 1828; it is sometimes explained from buying a whole carcass from the butcher, or from Cowper's fable (1779) of Muslims who ate a whole pig, each sure that his piece was not the forbidden one,^[2][7] and the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins also mentions the hogs roasted at political rallies.^[7] Hog-wild is American from 1904,^[2] and high on the hog is from the early 20th century, from the best cuts high on the animal.^[7] Johnson (1755) derived the word from Welsh.^[17]

Timeline

• Old English – a pig reared for slaughter.^[8]
• 1306 – a young sheep before its first shearing.^[8]
• 1340 – an animal thought to resemble a pig, such as the hedgehog.^[8]
• c. 1400 – a greedy or coarse person.^[13][2]
• 1486 – a wild boar in its second year.^[8]
• 1651 – verb, to scrub a ship's bottom.^[8]
• 1727 – verb, of a ship, to arch in the middle.^[8]
• 1769 – verb, to crop a horse's mane.^[8][3]
• 1828 – go the whole hog.^[2]
• 1884 – verb, to take more than one's share.^[8][2]
• 1886 – road hog.^[2]
• 1967 – a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A domestic pig, especially a fully grown one raised for meat.^{[3][18][19][8]}
2. Any animal of the pig family, wild or domestic, such as the boar or the warthog.^[3][19][8]
3. (chiefly British; also hogg) A young sheep before its first shearing; a hogget.^[3][18][8]
4. A greedy, selfish or dirty person; one who takes more than a fair share: a hog for attention.^[19][18][8]
5. (slang) A large, heavy motorcycle, especially a Harley-Davidson.^[18][2]
6. (nautical) A stiff brush for scraping a ship's bottom.^[18][8]

Verb

1. To take or use more than one's share of; to monopolize: He hogged the sofa all evening.^[19][20][8]
2. To eat greedily, often with down.^[8][18]
3. To cut a horse's mane short.^[19][20][8]
4. (nautical) Of a ship's keel or bottom, to curve upward in the middle; or to make it do so.^[19][20][8]
5. To shred waste wood by machine.^[19][20]

Word family

• hoglike
• unhogged

Related words

• hogget
• hoggaster
• hogshead
• hedgehog
• warthog

Usage notes

A dialect noun hog, a heap of earth and straw in which potatoes or turnips are stored (1729), and the verb for covering such a heap (1725), are of unknown origin; the OED thinks they may be a special use of the animal name, from the shape of the heap.^[8][21]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
13. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
16. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
19. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
20. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
21. ^ 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)