What does a piggyback ride have to do with pigs? Not much. In the 16th century, the word was pickaback, meaning to pitch or throw on one’s back. It’s had dozens of spellings over the past few centuries, but perhaps the word piggy has contributed to its popularity among children. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Piggyback”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Good afternoon. This is John from Dallas, Texas calling in.
Hi, John. Welcome.
Well, listen, I was listening to your program the other day, and I teach English and writing at a community college here in Dallas.
Great.
I’m always playing with words and phrases with my students.
And as I was listening to your program, for some reason, the phrase piggyback came into my mind.
And I was trying to think, where does that come from, piggyback?
It doesn’t really make much sense.
And I did a little bit of research on it and really didn’t have much luck, so I was wondering if you guys have an answer for that.
So you did some research, and did you find anything out about pigs?
Yeah, there’s a lot of strange terms related to pigs.
I did find an old dictionary.
It’s about 50 years old, Webster’s, and I looked up piggyback, and the first definition says, pick a back.
B-I-C-K, A-B-A-C-K.
Mm—
And then in the same dictionary, pick-a-back says, on the shoulders or back, as to carry pick-a-back.
Mm—
So how it transitioned into piggyback, I don’t know.
That still puzzles me.
Mm—
Well, you’re right.
Yeah, the old expression back in the 16th century was pick-a-back.
And pick, in this sense, is an old word that means to pitch or throw.
So you throw somebody on your back.
Pitch them on your back.
Right.
And it became corrupted over time, as people said it aloud.
And in American English in particular, it’s almost exclusively piggyback these days.
Right, right.
Well, I know as a kid going to grade school, we used to have piggyback races.
We used to also have piggyback fights where, you know, some guy would get up on your shoulders or on your back, and you would fight two other guys until you could remove one of them to the ground.
And also I know it has an industrial relationship, meaning, you know, in the transportation system, a loaded truck, trailer, that are carried on a railroad, flat cars, that’s also piggyback.
Right.
Right.
But it still doesn’t quite make any sense to me.
Where do they get the piggy?
Well, it’s because pick-a is corrupted to pick-ga, piggy.
It’s just a natural progression of sounds as over time it’s misunderstood, misheard, and then mispronounced on top of that.
It’s a really great example of the natural, slow, I hesitate to use the word corruption, but corruption of English.
So just little by little the sound changes, and it doesn’t matter much because it means the same thing that it did.
Yeah, okay, all right.
Well, and especially when you’re a little kid, the term piggy is going to appeal to you.
Yeah, that’s true.
And I love the fact that this word is from the 1500s at least.
And so it’s been with us in English for a very long time.
And I’m surprised that it even still exists.
Most words from that period are either so changed that they’re unrecognizable or they’re gone altogether.
We don’t use them.
So this word has endured because we have a use for it.
However, it’s endured in a variety of different forms.
The number of different spellings that it’s taken over the centuries, dozens.
Wow.
Yeah, lots.
Wow.
So nothing really to do with pigs, except that that captured the imagination later on.
That’s right.
Well, yeah, I was trying to imagine what the heck does this have to do with pigs, you know, but I understand your explanation.
Yeah.
I agree with the evolution of it anyway.
Thank goodness it’s not a pig, right?
That would be pretty heavy.
Although I have seen people ride pigs in races.
That was something to see.
Hey, John, thank you for calling.
Well, I appreciate it very much.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
Take care.
All right.
Bye-bye.
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