▪ I. pork1
(pɔək)
Forms: 3 porc, 5 poork, -e, 5–7 porke, 6 porcke, 8 porck, 4– pork.
[a. F. porc = Pr. porc, It. porco, Sp. puerco:—L. porc-us swine, hog.]
† 1. a. A swine, a hog, a pig. Sometimes distinguished from a pig or young swine. Obs. or Hist.
| ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 3122 Poveralle and pastorelles passede one aftyre, With porkes to pasture at the price ȝates. c 1400 Destr. Troy 3837 Polidarius was pluccid as a porke fat. 1528 Paynel Salerne's Regim. F j, Porkes of a yere or .ij. olde are better than yonge pygges. 1533 Bellenden Livy i. ix. (S.T.S.) I. 55 He slew þe pork with ane hevy stane. 1598 Stow Surv. (1842) 145/1 There were brought to the slaughter-house..34 porks, 3s. 8d. the piece; 91 pigs, 6d. the piece. 1682 J. Collins Salt & Fishery 83 Very large like Calves,..and as fat as Porks. [1799 Southey Pig 24 Woe to the young posterity of Pork! Their enemy is at hand. 1887 Rogers Agric. & Prices V. 343 Hogs and porks, the word appearing to be used indifferently, are occasionally found.] |
† b. Applied opprobriously to an uncultured person.
Obs.| 1645 Milton Colast. Wks. 1851 IV. 358, I mean not to dispute Philosophy with this Pork, who never read any. |
2. a. The flesh of swine used as food;
spec. the fresh flesh.
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 472/343 Huy nomen with heom into heore schip..porc, motoun and beof. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. vii. (Bodl. MS.) lf. 246 b/1 Boores flesche is more hard and drye..þan tame porke. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 409/2 Poork, flesche, suilla. 1486 Bk. St. Albans C vij, Take a quantyte of poorke and ony [= honey] and butter. 1533 Elyot Cast. Helthe (1539) 27 b, Aboue all kyndes of fleshe in nouryshyng the body, Galene most commendeth porke. 1598 W. Phillip Linschoten i. iv. 9/1 Porke is there a very costly dish. 1748 E. Darwin Let. in Life (1879) 9 We affirm Porck not only to be flesh but a devillish Sort of flesh. 1848 Thackeray Bk. Snobs xxv, Roast ribs of pork. |
b. U.S. slang. Federal funds obtained for particular areas or individuals on the basis of political patronage.
Cf. pork barrel.
| [1862 in D. W. Mitchell Ten Yrs. in U.S. xv. 271 To put myself in a position in which every wretch entitled to a vote would feel himself privileged to hold me under special obligations, would be giving rather too much pork for a shilling.] 1879 Congress Rec. 28 Feb. 2131/1 St. Louis is going to have some of the ‘pork’ indirectly; but it will not do any good. 1916 N.Y. Even. Post 12 May 8/2 ‘Pork’ has hitherto stood for just one process, the parcelling out of Federal moneys for court houses, post offices, and waterways, not by States, but by Congressional districts. 1949 Marshfield (Wisconsin) News-Herald 19 July 4/3 That difference of more than $54,000,000 includes a lot of pork for individual senators. 1962 Economist 20 Oct. 252/1 Pork is the generic name for the tasty morsels of federal spending..which a member of congress likes to bring back to his constituents. 1964 D. M. Berman In Congress Assembled xii. 323 One of the first facts of congressional life is that it does not pay to antagonize the committee to which one will someday have to appeal for funds to support a local project. Such projects are commonly referred to as ‘pork’. |
c. Phr.
pork and beans (
Mil. slang), a name given to Portuguese soldiers serving in the war of 1914–18.
| 1919 Athenæum 8 Aug. 727/2 He [sc. the soldier] gave nicknames to the Overseas troops, as..‘Chinks’ for Chinese labourers..and ‘Pork and Beans’ for Portuguese. 1919 W. H. Downing Digger Dial. 39 Pork-and-beans, Portuguese soldiers. 1925 Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 228 Pork and beans, a nickname for the Portuguese troops serving on the Western Front. |
3. attrib. and
Comb.: simple
attrib., as
pork-blubber,
pork-fat,
pork-griskin,
pork-sausage,
pork-shop,
pork steak,
pork trade;
obj. and
obj. gen., as
pork-curer,
pork-dealer,
pork-eater,
pork-packer (
packer1 2 b),
pork-packing,
pork-pickling,
pork raiser,
pork raising;
porkburger, a kind of hamburger made from pork;
pork-butcher, (
a) one who slaughters pigs for sale (
butcher n. 1); (
b) a shop-keeper who specializes in pork; so
pork-butchering vbl. n.,
-butchery;
pork-eater Canad., a canoeman engaged on the run between Montreal and Grand Portage; also, by extension, any canoeman,
esp. a new recruit;
obs. exc. hist.;
pork-fish, a local name of various American fishes: see
quots.;
† pork-hog = porker 1;
pork house, a business house trading in pork;
pork king, a magnate in the pork trade;
pork-knocker,
porknocker, in Guyana (formerly British Guiana), an independent or casual prospector for gold or diamonds; hence
pork-knocking vbl. n., the activity of a pork-knocker;
pork-pit, that part of a produce exchange where pork is dealt in. Also
pork-flesh, etc.
| 1804 A. Wilson in Poems & Lit. Prose (1876) I. 114 We ate some *pork-blubber and bread. |
| 1939 Amer. Speech XIV. 154/2 *Porkburger, ground pork, in other words, sausage! 1969 R. & D. De Sola Dict. Cooking 180/1 Porkburger, pork patty fried and eaten like a hamburger. |
| 1807 Southey Lett. from Eng. III. lxiii. 182 The *pork-butchers are commonly Jews. 1836–48 B. D. Walsh Aristoph., Knights i. iii, We'll observe pork-butcher's laws. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 59 The porkbutcher snapped two sheets from the pile, wrapped up her prime sausages and made a red grimace. |
| 1925 W. de la Mare Two Tales 40 Yet to judge from some poets' faces, you might be easily justified in supposing they would have flourished better in the *pork-butchering line. |
| 1935 Times Lit. Suppl. 24 Oct. 673/1 [They] set a rabbinical winkle-seller on the road to fortune which leads to *pork-butchery. |
| 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 232 *Pork-curers buy from farmers and dealers in the carcass. |
| 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. iii. v. 27 If wee grow all to be *porke-eaters, wee shall not shortlie haue a rasher on the coales for money. 1705 (title) A Pill for Pork Eaters, or a Scots Lancet for an English Swelling. 1793 J. MacDonell Diary 5 July in C. M. Gates Five Fur Traders (1933) 94 Between two and three hundred yards to the East of the N.W. Fort beyond the Pork eaters camp is the spot Mess{supr}{sups} David and Peter Grant have selected to build upon. 1801 A. Mackenzie Voy. from Montreal p. xxvii, Of these, five clerks, eighteen guides, and three hundred and fifty canoe men, were employed for the summer season in going from Montreal to the Grande Portage, in canoes, part of whom proceeded from thence to Rainy Lake,..and are called Pork-eaters, or Goers and Comers. 1823 J. Franklin Narr. Journey Shores Polar Sea vii. 281 There is a pride amongst ‘Old Voyagers’, which makes them consider the state of being frost-bitten as effeminate, and only excusable in a ‘Pork-eater’, or one newly come into the country. 1829 J. McLoughlin Let. 8 Dec. (1948) 69 By this opportunity I send you all you requested..and four Pork eaters. 1859 P. Kane Wanderings of Artist 34 The men who usually work this brigade of [Hudson Bay Company] canoes are hired at Lachine, and are called by the uncouth names of mangeurs du lard, or pork-eaters. 1953 Beaver Dec. 50 The provisions for the Crew were Pork & Biscuits; from which circumstance the young recruits were called ‘Pork Eaters’ to distinguish them from the old Winterers, who feed chiefly on ‘Pemican’. 1969 E. W. Morse Fur Trade Canoe Routes i. ii. 23 The voyageurs plying the run between Montreal and Lake Superior were known derisively among the tougher breed wintering in the North West as ‘pork eaters’, mangeurs de lard. |
| 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. II. xix. 193 Hung a dripping slab of *pork-fat over their lamp-wick. |
| 1734 Mortimer in Phil. Trans. XXXVIII. 315 The *Pork-Fish. The Bahamians esteem this a good Fish. 1888 Goode Amer. Fishes 81 The Norfolk Hog-fish, Pomodasys fulvomaculatus,..is the..‘Pork-fish’ and ‘Whiting’ at Key West. 1902 Webster Suppl., Pork-fish,..a sparoid fish (Anisotremus Virginicus). 1727 *Pork grisking [see griskin]. 1755 J. Shebbeare Lydia (1769) II. 284 Attending a pork-griskin which the parson had also ordered for their suppers. |
| 1470–85 Malory Arthur vii. i. 214 As fatte..as a *porke hog. |
| 1837 W. Jenkins Ohio Gazetteer 171 Eaton contains..four *pork houses. 1848 Rep. Comm. Patents 1847 (U.S.) 527 The hogs are taken into the pork house from the wagons and piled up in rows. 1890 W. D. Howells Boy's Town 36 Cooper-shops where the barrels were made, alternated with the pork-houses. |
| 1893 M. Elliott Honor 155 Gwendoline O'Shaunessey, the daughter of old O'Shaunessey the Western *pork-king. 1930 R. Macaulay Staying with Relations xv. 222, I should like to go off with a president,..or a film or pork king. |
| 1910 M. B. & C. W. Beebe Our Search for Wilderness vi. 187 The universal Guianian name for this type of independent miner is ‘*pork-knocker’, the explanation being that by knocking the rocks to pieces, they find just enough gold to procure the pork upon which they live. 1930 Times 14 Mar. 5/3 The pork-knockers make a night of it before they go up into the bush. 1949 P. Hastings Cases in Court iii. 130 These gentlemen employed a number of natives who enjoyed the somewhat peculiar title of ‘Pork knockers’. 1957 [see inboard a.]. 1972 Guardian 1 Dec. 14/1 The famous gold and diamond prospectors of the interior (the so-called ‘porknockers’ whose name derives from their salt pork rations). 1974 H. MacInnes Climb to Lost World iii. 42 A couple of prospectors, or ‘porknockers’, were staying in the Park Hotel... They are called pork⁓nockers because salted pork was their staple diet; when they had a run of bad luck, they used to borrow, or ‘knock’ pork from their more prosperous friends. |
| 1965 ‘Lauchmonen’ Old Thom's Harvest vii. 95 Winston, man, you better had go back to your *pork-knocking. 1974 H. MacInnes Climb to Lost World xii. 221 We had some Brazilian natives with us... They..had come over for the diamond prospecting but, since the water had been too high for porknocking, they had agreed to work for us instead. |
| 1838 N.Y. Advertiser & Express 7 Feb. 3/3 It is due to that enterprising class of citizens, the *pork packers, that the error should be corrected. 1884 Sir L. Griffin in Fortn. Rev. Jan. 55 Annually, a flight of pork-packers and successful tradesmen cross the Atlantic. 1905 Athenæum 5 Aug. 174/2 In a few days fashionable people, from the peer to the pork-packer, will be rushing to the Highlands. 1949 Boston Sunday Globe 26 June (Fiction Mag.) 2/1 These corporations were principally distillers, manufacturers of tobacco, and, especially, beef and pork packers. |
| 1851 C. Cist Sk. Cincinnati in 1851 228 *Pork and Beef Packing. 1870 Trans. Illinois Agric. Soc. 1867–68 VII. 475 The only reliable statement of the pork-packing of the West we have any knowledge of. 1892 A. Craib America 66 Pork-packing is one of the chief sources of wealth in Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky. |
| 1890 Pall Mall G. 8 May 3/2 A *pork-pickling establishment..has lately been opened there. |
| 1839 Jrnl. Indiana Ho. Representatives 8 Jan. 231 The scarcity..is likely to prove so mischievous to the interests of our *pork raisers and dealers. 1872 Trans. Illinois Dept. Agric. 1871 IX. 390 Dark, cold, damp Piggeries are a nuisance to any farmer or pork raiser. 1880 G. T. Ingham Digging Gold 203 Is this the honor of Western pork-raisers? |
| 1872 Trans. Illinois Dept. Agric. 1871 IX. 354 He had said that *pork raising stood pre⁓eminent as a branch of stock raising in our State. |
| 1829 Marryat F. Mildmay xvi, That fellow is only fit for fly-flapper at a *pork shop! |
| 1783 J. Woodforde Diary 8 Apr. (1926) II. 68 We had for Dinner..Mutton Stakes, *Pork Stakes, Peas Soup. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 230 Master Patrick Aloysius Dignam came out of Mangan's..carrying a pound and a half of porksteaks. Ibid. 251 Master Patrick Aloysius Dignam..raised also his new black cap with fingers greased by porksteak paper. 1957 Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 245/2 Pork chops or steaks are usually browned in a hot skillet. |
| 1851 A. O. Hall Manhattaner 13 Here, too, is modest beauty from Ohio (papa in the *pork trade). |
▪ II. † pork2 Obs. [Echoic.] An imitative name for the hoarse croak of the raven:
cf. morepork. So
† pork v. intr., to croak; hence
† ˈporking vbl. n.; and (with reduplication expressing repetition)
pork-porking ppl. a.| 1606 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. iii. Schism 285 From the Mountains nigh The Rav'ns begin with their pork-porking cry. 1640 Brome Sparagus Gard. iv. iv, Harke, the Ravens cry porke for him and yet he dyes not. 1655 Moufet & Bennet Health's Impr. 5 They foresee by porking of raven..when it will raine. |