Puercoesp

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A spiny, gnawing rodent whose back and sides are covered in sharp quills it can raise when threatened
2. A prickly mammal bristling with barbed quills that serves as a defense against predators
3. An animal of the rodent family that protects itself with a coat of sharp, erectile spines

Etymology: The word is a clipped form of the Spanish "puercoespín," which means porcupine and is built from two parts: "puerco," meaning pig (from Latin "porcus"), and "espín," a spine or quill (related to "espina," thorn, from Latin "spina"). Together they make "spiny pig," a description of the animal's bristling defence. English "porcupine" tells the same story. It comes from Old French "porc espin," also "spiny pig," which English speakers reshaped over the late Middle Ages into the form we know. The Spanish and English words are therefore independent descriptions that arrived at the same image, one from a Romance language, one from French.