porcupine

C2+ Topic:General Vocabulary

US /ˈpɔrkjəˌpaɪn/ UK /ˈpɔːkjʊˌpaɪn/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a large rodent covered with protective quills or spines

The dog learned its lesson after tangling with a porcupine.

Thesaurus

Word family

Forms Porcupines

Related forms porcine spine

Simplified etymology

Porcupine developed from an earlier form, porke despyne, possibly based on Latin porcus spinosus, “prickly pig.” Its spelling varied greatly from the 15th through the 17th century, with forms such as porkpen, porpoynt, and Shakespeare’s porpentine.

Etymology

From Middle French porc espin ('spiny pig'), from Latin porcus ('pig') + spina ('thorn, spine'). Literally 'thorn-pig'.

porc espin Old French porcus Latin spina Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

General Vocabulary

External links

# porcupine

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈpɔrkjəˌpaɪn/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈpɔːkjʊˌpaɪn/

## Meanings
1. a large rodent covered with protective quills or spines

## Examples
- The dog learned its lesson after tangling with a porcupine.

## Related Forms
- porcine
- spine

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: porc espin
- Root: porcus
- Root: spina

## Etymology
From Middle French porc espin ('spiny pig'), from Latin porcus ('pig') + spina ('thorn, spine'). Literally 'thorn-pig'.

## AI Etymology
Porcupine is from Middle French porc espin ('spiny pig'), from Latin porcus ('pig') + spina ('thorn, spine'). Literally 'thorn-pig'. Important recorded forms include porc espin (Old French), porcus (Latin), and spina (Latin). Morphologically, the word preserves a built structure whose named elements carry the historical sense into English. The modern sense remains close to that composition, with the parts narrowing into a single lexical item. In current use it covers a large rodent covered with protective quills or spines. The wider family includes related words such as porcine and spine.

## Topics
- General Vocabulary

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