porcupine
pronunciation
How to pronounce porcupine in British English:
UK [ˈpɔ:kjupaɪn]
How to pronounce porcupine in American English:
US [ˈpɔrkjupaɪn]
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- Noun:
- relatively large rodents with sharp erectile bristles mingled with the fur
Word Origin
- porcupine
- porcupine: [14] The porcupine is etymologically a ‘spiny pig’. Its name was coined in Vulgar Latin as *porcospīnus from Latin porcus ‘pig’ (source of English pork) and spīnus ‘spine’. It came to English via Old French porc espin. It underwent all sorts of traumas (portpen, porpoynt, porpentine – the form used by Shakespeare: the ghost of Hamlet’s father speaks of the ‘quills upon the fretful porpentine’ – porkenpick, porpin, etc) before finally settling down in the 17th century to porcupine, and around 1700 the fanciful variant porcupig was coined.=> pork, spine
- porcupine (n.)
- c. 1400, porke despyne, from Old French porc-espin (early 13c., Modern French porc-épic), literally "spiny pig," from Latin porcus "hog" + spina "thorn, spine" (see spine). The word had many forms in Middle English and early Modern English, including portepyn, porkpen, porkenpick, porpoynt, and Shakespeare's porpentine (in "Hamlet").
Example
- 1. The best example of this is the porcupine whose spikes stand up when threatened .
- 2. Not like porcupine needles or anything , but small pointy projections on the surface that basically make the organ bumpy .
- 3. The menu of the lamrice restaurant in hanoi offers a whole roast civet cat for 120000 dong ( $ 8 ) or porcupine steamed with ginger for 50000 dong .
- 4. Earlier this year the zoo put out a viral advert on youtube which showed the zoo 's director dismissing a live porcupine on the grounds of threatened new york state budget cuts .
- 5. We eat in restaurants where the cook may have butchered a porcupine before working on our scallops .