Pigswill

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Refuse or waste food scraps, typically used as feed for livestock, especially pigs
2. Food leftovers or scraps considered unfit for human consumption and used to feed pigs
3. Discarded or leftover food that is commonly given to pigs as a cheap feed option

Etymology: "Swill" is an old word for liquid kitchen waste, the watery leftovers that were once collected to feed animals. Pigswill is simply the compound of "pig" and "swill", naming the slops fed specifically to pigs. The formation is plain, so the story lies mainly in the parts. "Swill" comes from Old English "swillan", meaning to wash or rinse, and it still carried that sense of flushing with water before it came to name the mixture itself. The sense shift from washing to the material being washed away is the real point of interest: the word moved from the action of rinsing to the stuff left over after a meal. Pig-keeping was a common household practice for centuries, which is why a dedicated compound grew up around it.

Synonyms: slop, swill, refuse, scraps, waste