Pigtail \PIG-teyl\ , noun;
This word dates to the 1680's as "tobacco in a twisted roll" from
pig +
tail. The meaning "braid of hair" arose in the mid-1700's when it was a fashion among soldiers and sailors. Somewhere along the line it became this:
The origin of
pig is uncertain, but it probably evolved from Old English
*picg and originally meant "young pig," as opposed to "adult pig," which was
swine.
*Picg was really only used in compound in Old English, and the usual word for "pig" was
fearh, which is related to
furh ("furrow").
Furh derives from Proto-Indo-European
*perk- ("dig, furrow"), which just so happens to be the forebear of
pork via Latin
porc-us ("pig").
Tail comes from Latin
tægel, from Proto-Germanic
*tagla-, which derives from Proto-Indo-European
*doklos based on
*dek- ("something long and thin").
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