English
hog
Hog comes from Middle English hog ‘a pig or swine, especially one that is…’.
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hog‘a pig or swine, especially one that is castrated and male’
- Englishearliest quotation 1813same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hog‘a pig or swine, especially one that is castrated and male’
- Englishearliest quotation 1813same form
Earliest quotation: 1813, John Mason Good, Olinthus Gilbert Gregory: “Hog, on board a ship, is a sort of…”
The story
Hog originally meant a castrated male pig, hence a sense of “the cut one”. (Compare hogget for a castrated male sheep.)
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *kewh₂- ‘to beat, hew, forge’
through Proto-Germanic *hawwaną ‘to hew, forge’
through Old Norse hǫggva ‘to strike, chop, cut’
Today it means
noun Any animal belonging to the Suidae family of mammals, especially the pig, the warthog, and the boar.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle English hog / hog