Piggy Banks

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Todd from Federal Way, Washington.

From where in Washington?

Federal Way. We’re just a little south of Seattle.

What’s happening up there on Federal Way? What’s on your mind?

Well, I was just wondering about piggy banks.

I know pigs don’t really have a theme of money, so why do we still use piggy banks?

Why not another creature, another animal?

Oh, interesting. Why don’t we use, like, the donkey bank?

Yeah, exactly.

Or the doggy bank.

I wouldn’t mind a doggy bank.

Todd, do you have any theories about that?

I mean, I don’t…

Well, the one I heard was there used to be a clay called pig, but it was spelled P-Y-G-G.

And that was used in the Middle Ages, and they used to store money in pig jars.

And then after they stopped using pigs, or pig, you know, they just kept the name and did P-I-G-G.

Yeah, that’s pretty much it.

That pig, in particularly the dialects of Scotland and northern England, was a term for an earthenware pot.

And you can see where somebody might take an earthenware pot called a pig and make little piggy markings on it or fashion it into a pig.

Oh, I see.

So you would just put the money in it, and maybe as a joke, because you had both these words in your vocabulary, you would just make it look more like a pig, an actual pig.

Sure, sure.

Very interesting.

Yeah.

Sounds like you did your homework, Todd.

Yeah, it was one of those questions.

My son has one, and we put money in it all the time, and I’m looking at it thinking, why not a rabbit or something, you know, with prosperity?

I raised pigs for quite some years, and not the icon of wealth, I guess.

Yeah, well, I sort of thought that when I was growing up that it must be, you know, sort of fattening this pig, and you want to make it fatter and fatter and fatter by putting more pennies in.

Yeah, or greed.

That’s the only thing I could think of maybe was it was greedy like a pig.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Hogging all your money, yeah.

But no, so this is really interesting.

So this word pig is kind of hiding out in English.

It’s from an older branch of the language.

Most of us don’t know that it’s there, but it refers to a type of earthen material like ceramic or something.

Yeah, yeah, that you would make little pots out of.

Well, Todd, it sounds like you did your homework.

Thanks for sharing all of it with us.

Thank you so much, guys.

And best of luck up there.

Thank you.

Filling up his…

How is he making all that money, your son?

Oh, raiding our pockets of change.

Aha!

Aha, that time-honored technique.

Very good.

I’m an avid pool player, so I at least have a few dollars and quarters to give him at the end of the day.

Very good.

Thanks, buddy.

All right, thanks for calling.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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