▪ I. ˈpigtail
[So called from resemblance to the tail of a pig.]
1. a. Tobacco twisted into a thin rope or roll.
| 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. xxii. (Roxb.) 274/1 Pig taile, is a very small wreath or roll tobacco. 1740 Swift Will Wks. 1745 VIII. 384, I bequeath to Mr. John Grattan..my silver box..in which I desire the said John to keep the tobacco he usually cheweth, called pigtail. 1760 H. Walpole Lett. to Mann 7 May, He..took some pigtail tobacco out of his pocket. 1839 ‘J. Fume’ Paper on Tobacco 120 Pig⁓tail when smoked is equally as strong as shag. |
b. A farthing candle. dial.
| 1828 Craven Gloss. (ed. 2) s.v., The watching of the pig⁓tail was a superstitious ceremony observed in Craven..on the Eve of St. Mark. On that evening, a party of males or females..place on the floor a lighted pig-tail, for so a small or farthing candle is denominated. 1867 Harland & W. Lanc. Folk-lore 140 On the fast of St. Agnes she watches a small candle called a ‘pig-tail’, to see the passing image of her future husband. |
c. Naut. A short length of rope; a rope's end.
| 1894 Daily Tel. 18 Oct. 6/5 Hit..with a ‘pigtail’, a piece of thick rope. |
d. Electr. A short length of flexible conductor; spec. one in an electrical machine connecting a brush to its brush-holder; (see also quot. 1971).
| 1903 Hawkins & Wallis Dynamo (ed. 3) xix. 606 The flexible copper conductor..forms a twisted pig-tail with enough slack to allow of the normal amount of brush movement. 1949 Jrnl. Appl. Physics XX. 805/2 Some cartridges..were fitted with pigtails for convenience in wiring. 1962 C. O. Swanson in Roberson & Farrior Guidance & Control 400 The pigtails, which pass power to and from the floated assembly, are very small in size. 1963 Rosenblatt & Friedman Direct & Alternating Current Machinery ii. 15 Except in small dynamos, the current is taken from the brush by means of a flexible copper wire embedded in the brush, called the pigtail. 1964 R. F. Ficchi Electr. Interference ix. 166 The conductor may be buried in the concrete slab under the equipment with pigtail conductors protruding above the concrete for equipment grounds. 1971 M. Tak Truck Talk 118 Pigtail, the cable that transmits electricity to the trailer from the tractor. |
2. a. A plait or queue of hair hanging down from the back of the head; applied spec. to that worn by soldiers and sailors in the latter part of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, and still frequently by young girls, and esp. to that customary among the Chinese under the Manchus.
| 1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) I. vii. xciii. 428 They observe an uniformity about their heads by wearing pigtails. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 595 The French carpenter can⁓not saw his boards, without a long pig-tail and ruffled shirt. 1822 W. Irving Braceb. Hall (1849) 52 A soldier of the old school, with powdered head, side locks, and pigtail. 1830 Examiner 801/1 Trousers came in with the French Revolution, pigtails went out with Lord Liverpool. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. xiv, [Mrs. Kenwigs' girls] had flaxen hair, tied with blue ribbons, hanging in luxuriant pigtails down their backs. 1874 M. E. Herbert tr. Hübner's Ramble i. xii. 193 Chinamen..with their black caps, and equally black pig⁓tails. 1885 Fairholt Costume in Eng. (ed. 3) II. 321 Pig⁓tails in the army were reduced in 1804 to seven inches in length and in 1808 cut off. c 1890 F. Wilson's Fate 76 He..wiped his grizzled moustache and twisted its extremities into pig-tails. 1895 B. M. Croker Village Tales (1896) 66, I was still a rather troublesome schoolgirl in short frocks and a pig-tail. |
b. transf. The wearer of a pigtail; a Chinese.
| 1886 Cornh. Mag. July 55 Sweetmeats..being great favourites with the ‘pigtails’. |
† 3. A pigtailed monkey. Obs.
| 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. IV. 215 The Maimon of Buffon, which Edwards calls the Pigtail, is the last of the baboons, and..no larger than a cat. [Cf. pigtailed a. 1.] |
4. attrib. and Comb. (chiefly from 2). a. in sense ‘of, pertaining to, wearing a pigtail’; colloq. Chinese: as pigtail brigade, pigtail land, pigtail party; b. in sense ‘characteristic of the period when pigtails were worn’, old-fashioned, pedantic, absurdly formal (cf. Ger. zopf), as pigtail drill, pigtail period, pigtail professor, pigtail tory; c. = pigtailed 1, as pigtail macaque; also pigtail tobacco (see 1 a); pigtailwise adv.
| 1817 Cobbett Wks. XXXII. 114 Do the Pig tail Order suppose, that such means will be resorted to now? 1859 Sala Tw. round Clock (1861) 186 How I should have liked to witness the old pigtail operas and ballets performed at the Pantheon. 1865 M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 348 Heyne was essentially a dull, wooden man,—a pigtail professor after all. 1867 Wood Pop. Nat. Hist., Mammalia 16 Bruh or Pig-tail Macaque.—Macacus nemestrinus. 1885 Leisure Hour Jan. 32/1 Emancipation from the ‘pigtail drill’. 1887 J. Ashby-Sterry Lazy Minstrel (1892) 199 Her ample tresses one descries Are closely plaited, pig-tail-wise. 1890 Pall Mall G. 10 Feb. 7/2 These same monkeys, the so called pig-tail variety, are taught by the Malays to pick fruit for them in the forests. 1898 Athenæum 19 Mar. 366/1 He was a typical ‘pigtail Tory’. 1899 Daily News 25 Oct. 2/1 Mr. Yerburgh, the leader of what was known last Session as ‘the Pigtail Party’ in the House of Commons, is contemplating a journey to China. |
▪ II. pigtail
corrupt form of pightle.