pig

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Any of several mammalian species of the family Suidae, having cloven hooves, bristles and a snout adapted for digging; especially the domesticated animal Sus domesticus.

   The man kept a pen with two pigs that he fed everything from carrots to cabbage.

2. 2
   noun

   The edible meat of such an animal; pork.

   Some religions prohibit their adherents from eating pig.

3. 3
   noun

   A light pinkish-red colour, like that of a pig (also called pig pink).

   So far on the streets there's been a lot of metallic pink (the kind of pink as in the shade of pig you get, and this is exactly the shade of the diary I've been writing in) […]

4. 4
   noun

   Someone who overeats or eats rapidly and noisily.

   You gluttonous pig! Now that you've eaten all the cupcakes, there will be none for the party!

5. 5
   noun

   A lecherous or sexist man.

   She considered him a pig, as he invariably stared at her bosom when they talked.

6. 6
   noun

   A dirty or slovenly person.

   He was a pig and his apartment a pigpen; take-away containers and pizza boxes in a long, moldy stream lined his counter tops.

7. 7
   noun

   A police officer.

   The protester shouted, “Don't give in to the pigs!” as he was arrested.

8. 8
   noun

   A difficult problem.

   Hrm... this one's a real pig: I've been banging my head against the wall over it for hours!

Etymology

From Middle English pigge (“pig, piglet”) (originally a term for a young pig, with adult pigs being swyn (“swine”)), from Old English *picga, *pycga (attested in picgbrēad (“mast, pig-fodder”)), perhaps a diminutive of Proto-West Germanic *puk, *pūk (“pig”), which also gave rise to Middle Low German pûke, puyke (“pig, piglet”). Pokorny suggests this root might be somehow related to *bū-, *bew- (“to blow; swell”), which could account for the alternation between "pig" and "big". Compare Middle Dutch pogge, puggen, pigge, pegsken (> dialectal Dutch pogge (“piglet”)), Middle Low German pugge (> We…