Idiom question

[Bruce Dykes]

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Haas <highbob at MINDSPRING.COM>
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Date: Saturday, January 22, 2000 1:52 AM
Subject: Re: Idiom question


>No, hogs is pigs, just pigs.  Usually big pigs.  Nuthin' about the sex.
>
>> From: Greg Austin <PorchGreg at AOL.COM>
>> Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 21:31:38 EST
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: Idiom question
>>
>> << I don't know of a special term off the top of my head for he-pig >>
>>
>> I'm not an expert but isn't that a hog?

Lessee if we got the swine thing straight:

pigs: pigs of either sex
hogs: (usually) big pigs of either sex
swine: highfalutin' longhair word for pigs
sow: she-pig
boar: he-pig

I did some work on a pig farm in Pennsylvania in my youth, and I'm
reasonably confident (dictionary? those things are a waste of money. I write
my own 8-) that boar applies to male pigs, even when domesticated.
Now, does 'wild' have to prepend boar to designate ferality, or is it
optional? And what of feral sows? I've never heard of a sow hunt...

bkd