Porker

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈpɔːkə/

Definitions

1. A designation for a sizable swine bred primarily for consumption, which may also refer to a person exhibiting insatiable greed or gluttony while optionally denoting a breed of large pig recognized for its considerable mass
2. An identifier for a large porcine animal raised for food purposes, it can also describe an individual who overindulges in eating, and may point to a specific breed known for its heftiness
3. A pig of considerable size typically raised for meat production ; an individual characterized by excessive eating or greediness

Etymology: "Porker" is simply "pork" with the agent-style ending "-er" added, so the animal is named for the meat it yields, not the other way round. "Pork" came into English from Old French "porc," which in turn comes from Latin "porcus," meaning pig. The English word for the living animal, though, was the native "swine," and "pork" only meant the meat, which is why the pattern of a meat name producing a livestock name is unusual in English. The sense shifted in predictable steps from the animal to people. "Porker" first named a pig being fattened or readied for slaughter, and the same associations of plumpness and being a target carried over to describe an obese person. Police officers were then called "pigs" in slang, and "porker" followed the same path to name a cop. A separate, playful branch appears in the sense "a lie." This is an extension of the rhyming slang "pork pie," where "pork pie" rhymes with "lie," and "porker" took on that meaning as a shortened, rhyme-based echo of it.

Synonyms: pig, swine, hog