Dear Sasha,

French marsouin 'porpoise' (and so a type of dolphin) appears to have been 
borrowed in the eleventh century from Old Norse marsvin, literally 'sea pig'.  
Various Germanic languages, at various stages of their existence, have called 
a porpoise a 'sea pig' (compare German Meerschwein, Danish marsvin), although, 
in a bizarre twist, this word can mean 'guinea pig' in many of these languages, a
meaning which sometimes replaces the sense of 'porpoise' and sometimes exists 
alongside it.  English porpoise itself comes from Old French por[c]peis, por[c]pois 
'pig fish'.

In Pliny, we find the expression porculus marinus 'little sea pig', but it is not 
clear what it refers to (some people have claimed he means a porpoise).  See 
Alfred C. Andrews, 'Greek and Latin mouse-fishes and pig-fishes', in Transactions 
and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 79 (1948), pp. 232-253.

Don't know if any of this helps.

Best wishes,

JC
-- 
John Charles Smith
Official Fellow and Tutor, St Catherine's College, Oxford, OX1 3UJ, UK
Deputy Director, Research Centre for Romance Linguistics, University of Oxford
tel. +44 1865 271700 (College) / 271748 (direct) / 271768 (fax)

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