Sunday, January 8, 2012

Pigtail

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:
Adorable (credit)
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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