porcine

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman porcin (“of a pig, suggestive of a pig”) and Middle French porcin,^[2][3][4][5] and partly directly borrowed from Latin porcīnus (“of a pig, of a hog, swinish”).^[2][3][4][6] The OED dates the Old French adjective to the 13th century,^[2] and the Anglo-Norman Dictionary records it from the third quarter of the 12th.^[7] The Latin adjective is formed from porcus (“pig, hog”) and -īnus,^[2][6][8][9] the noun being from Proto-Indo-European *porko- (“young pig”).^[4][5] The OED compares Spanish porcino and Italian porcino.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or relating to a pig or pigs: perhaps before 1425, in a translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie,^[2][3] and early 15th century in Etymonline.^[4] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford, the Oxford Dictionary of English and Collins date the word only to the 17th century,^{[10][8][11][12]} and Dictionary.com to 1650–60.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed close to its Latin sense until the 17th century, when it was applied to people and their ways: the OED's first record of "resembling a pig, in appearance or manners" is from J. Gauden's memoir of Bishop Brounrigg (1660).^[2] Etymonline notes that it was applied to persons in derision or contempt,^[4] and Swinburne could write of sonnets “noticeable only for their porcine quality of prurience”.^[8] Anglo-Norman had already used the adjective for what is vile or foul.^[7] The neutral sense survives in technical use, as in porcine brucellosis.^[6]

Timeline

• perhaps before 1425 – of or relating to a pig.^[2][3]
• 1660 – resembling a pig in appearance or manners; piggish.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, relating to or characteristic of pigs or swine: The vet studied a porcine virus.^[12][6][2]
2. Resembling a pig in looks or manners; piggish: He had a porcine face and small, suspicious eyes.^[2][6][8]

Related words

• pork
• farrow
• porcupine
• porpoise

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House