lipstick on a pig

[Charles Doyle]

The "lipstick on a pig" proverb is probably a variant of "You can dress up a pig, but it's still a pig" or "You can dress a pig in silk (bows, etc.) . . . ," which may be older.  In Thomas Fuller's _Gnomologia_ (1732): "A hog in armor is still a hog"; I'm not sure that's quite the same, though (the phrase "a hog in armor" had its own separate existence, referring to extreme personal awkwardness).

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008 08:32:03 -0400
>From: Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>Subject: lipstick on a pig
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>Subject:      lipstick on a pig
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>There's a kerfuffle over Obama saying "You can put lipstick on a pig
>-- it's still a pig," which the McCain campaign is claiming refers to
>Sarah "pitbull with lipstick" Palin. Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen
>Psaki is quoted as saying, "That expression is older than my
>grandfather's grandfather and it means that you can dress something up
>but it doesn't change what it is."
>
>How old is the expression, really? A quick database check doesn't turn
>up anything before 1985:
>
>---
>Washington Post,  Nov. 15, 1985, p. C1 (Nexis)
>KNBR, the AM radio station carrying Giants baseball games, had raised
>$20,000 toward the construction of a new downtown stadium. The board
>of supervisors, reluctant to commit to such a project, asked if they
>couldn't use the money to renovate Candlestick Park. "That," replied
>KNBR personality Ron Lyons, "would be like putting lipstick on a pig."
>---
>
>There are earlier cites for "putting lipstick on a corpse," but that's
>a bit different.
>
>---
>http://www.osmre.gov/legishistory/publication92-10.htm
>COMMITTEE ON INTERIOR AND INSULAR AFFAIRS UNITED STATES SENATE
>92nd CONGRESS, 1ST SESSION
>DECEMBER 1971 SERIAL-NO: Serial No. 92-10
>MEMORANDUM OF THE CHAIRMAN
>"Like putting lipstick on a corp[o]se," is how current strip-mine
>reclamation efforts were described to me on a recent trip to West
>Virginia.
>---
>
>--Ben Zimmer
>
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