English Explanatory Dictionary

swine

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A pig (the animal).
  2. A contemptible person (plural swine or swines).
  3. A police officer; a "pig".
  4. Something difficult or awkward; a pain.
noun
  1. plural of sow
name
  1. A small village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England (OS grid ref TA1335).

Pronunciation

/swaɪn/ en-us-swine.ogg

Word forms

swine swines

Etymology

From Middle English swyn, swin, from Old English swīn, from Proto-West Germanic *swīn, from Proto-Germanic *swīną, from an adjectival form of Proto-Indo-European *suH- (“pig”). Cognates Related to West Frisian swyn, Low German Swien, Dutch zwijn, German Schwein, Danish and Swedish svin, and more distantly to Polish świnia, Russian свинья́ (svinʹjá), Latin sūinus, Latin sūs, Ancient Greek ὗς (hûs), Persian خوک (xuk).

Derived words

African swine fever virus Blind Swine Mate cast pearls before swine Gadarene swine giant thorny-headed worm of swine go the entire swine mereswine microswine pearls before swine seaswine sea swine sea-swine swine-bread swinebread swinecote swine fever swineflesh swine flesh swine-flesh swine flu swineherd swineherder swineherding swinehood swinehound swine-hound swine influenza swinelike swineling swineman swinemeat swinepox swinery swinestone swinesty swineyard swinish throw pearls before swine
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