SLSL Intro: Prickly Pig

[s~Z]

OED:

() 6 porpantine, -pentyn, -pintine, purpentine, 6-7, 20 (humorous)
porpentine, (6 porcuntine).
(Porpentine was the form known to Shakes. who uses it 7 times, in 4 of these
as the sign of an inn.)

  1530 in Ancestor XI. (1904) 180 Prestwich..beryth to his creest a
porpantine in his kinde. 1545 R. ASCHAM Toxoph. I. (Arb.) 31 Nature gaue
example of shotyng first, by the Porpentine, which shote his prickes. 1562
W. BULLEIN Bulwark, Bk. Simples 80b, What is the nature of a beast called
the Porpintine? 1585 GREENE Planetomachia Wks. (Grosart) V. 97 The enuious
Porcuntine, who coueting to strike others with her pennes leaueth her selfe
void of any defence. 1589 PUTTENHAM Eng. Poesie II. xi. [xii.] (Arb.) 118
The Purpentines nature is, to such as stand aloofe, to dart her prickles
from her. 1593 SHAKES. 2 Hen. VI, III. i. 363 And fought so long, till that
his thighes with Darts Were almost like a sharpe-quill'd Porpentine. 1602
Ham. I. v. 20 Each particular haire to stand an end, Like Quilles vpon the
fretfull Porpentine. 1657 HOWELL Londinop. 24 Leopards, Linxes, and
Porpentines. 1936 T. S. ELIOT Coll. Poems 1909-1935 147 How unpleasant to
meet Mr. Eliot! With a bobtail cur In a coat of fur And a porpentine cat.

[ME. porke despyne, porkepyn, etc., a. OF. and Pr. porc espin (c1220 in
Godef.), also porc d'espine (c1275) = Sp. puerco espin, Pg. porco espinho,
It. porcospino (also porco spinoso), corresp. to a L. type *porcus spinus;
f. porco, porc:L. porcus hog, pig + spino, espin, épin, deriv. of L. spna
thorn (cf. L. spnus, Sp. espin, OF. espin a thorn-tree). The genesis of the
compound is not very clear, unless it began as short for porco spinoso:L.
type *porcus spnsus spiny or prickly pig. The , , and  forms appear to be
English corruptions, due to imperfect apprehension of the foreign word, and
to 'popular etymology' identifying the ending with pen, point, etc.; the
type portepyne may have arisen out of F. por(c) d'épin, with c mute. The
forms really represent a different compound, viz. F. porc-épic, in 16th c.
porc-espic, OF. and Pr. porc-espi (13th c. in Littré), in which the second
element is F. épi, OF. espi:L. spcus, -um, collateral forms of spca spike.
(This form, confined to Fr. and Pr., was prob. and alteration of porc
espin.)]