hog
pronunciation
How to pronounce hog in British English:
UK [hɒɡ]
How to pronounce hog in American English:
US [hɔːɡ]
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- Noun:
- a person regarded as greedy and pig-like
- a sheep up to the age of one year; one yet to be sheared
- domestic swine
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- Verb:
- take greedily; take more than one's share
Word Origin
- hog
- hog: [OE] Hog generally means ‘pig’, of course, and has done so since the late Old English period, but it is also a technical term used by farmers and stockmen for a ‘young sheep before its first sheering’, a usage which seems to go back at least to the 14th century, so it could well be that originally the term hog denoted not a type of animal, but its age. Its ultimate source may have been Celtic.
- hog (n.)
- late 12c. (implied in hogaster), "swine reared for slaughter" (usually about a year old), also used by stockmen for "young sheep" (mid-14c.) and for "horse older than one year," suggesting the original sense had something to do with an age, not a type of animal. Not evidenced in Old English, but it may have existed. Possibility of British Celtic origin [Watkins, etc.] is regarded by OED as "improbable." Figurative sense of "gluttonous person" is first recorded early 15c. Meaning "Harley-Davidson motorcycle" is attested from 1967. To go hog wild is from 1904. Hog in armor "awkward or clumsy person in ill-fitting attire" is from 1650s. Phrase to go the whole hog (1828) is sometimes said to be from the butcher shop option of buying the whole slaughtered animal (at a discount) rather than just the choice bits. But it is perhaps rather from the story (recorded in English from 1779) of Muslim sophists, forbidden by the Quran from eating a certain unnamed part of the hog, who debated which part was intended and managed to exempt the whole of it from the prohibition. Road hog is attested from 1886.
- hog (v.)
- "to appropriate greedily," U.S. slang, 1884 (first attested in "Huck Finn"), from hog (n.). Related: Hogged; hogging.
Example
- 1. Your economic training should have covered the notorious " hog cycle " .
- 2. It takes about six months for higher grain prices to translate to higher cattle and hog prices .
- 3. A hog vaccine for the virus is being developed but isn 't yet available .
- 4. That rapid replication rate also increased the chances of strains evolving in ways that allowed them to evade hog immune systems .
- 5. As vice president joe biden learned on his recent visit to a beijing restaurant whose specialties are pork liver and intestine , nary a part of the hog is wasted .