Etymology of Police Officer “Pigs”

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Jessica, and I’m calling from Grand Prairie, Texas.

Hi, Jessica.

What can we help you with today?

Okay, I have several family members and a very good friend’s husband who are in law enforcement.

And we were listening to the show about three months ago and talking, and it came up.

Why do people call cops pigs?

Okay. Well, I have some answers for you.

We know where it came from and we know when it came from.

And have a really strong reason about why it came from those places.

So it’s originally British.

It came from underground criminal slang as early as 1800.

Cool.

And it’s directly connected to the idea of pigs as disgusting creatures who take more than their share.

The idea is that the cops weren’t as likely to help you as they were just to steal your goods that you were trying to sell or to take your illicit gains for themselves or to just take your wallet or your purse and run away with it.

So this was a different time.

And it’s lasted ever since.

Now, pig to mean cop or police officer has ebbed and flowed in its popularity over the centuries with a big rise in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly among the counterculture here in the United States.

But it’s still used today.

As a matter of fact, when I survey high school students here in San Diego about the slang that they use, they still use pig to refer to police officers.

And they actually think of it as theirs.

They don’t even really know.

Oh, really?

They don’t know that it’s got a 200-year history at all.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that’s it.

It’s as simple as that.

Pig is a disgusting creature.

I mean, and pig in this way has been used for almost always in a negative way to refer to other people who are detestable or disgusting.

Considering some of the books I’ve read, well, fiction I’ve read, that makes a lot of sense.

Yeah, it’s an interesting word.

You know, my father was a police officer for a long time.

When I was a boy, he told me, and I remember this clearly, that he thought the word cop was offensive.

Really?

And he did not like, for him and his officers, because he was a police chief in a small town at that time, to be referred to as cops.

Really?

They were police or police officers.

That was it.

And I still to this day don’t know.

I should ask him, but I still don’t know why he didn’t like it.

And I’ve talked to other police since who have never, they don’t feel that way.

But for him, cop was a problem.

But pig has persisted.

And it’s still offensive.

Any cop is going to get angry if you call them a pig today.

Any person is.

Well, I should tell you both.

There was one case in history where pig was used in a positive way.

It was a term of affection for a pretty lady.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

I’ve heard of pig’s knee, like a shortening of pig’s eye.

Because you’re pink and smooth and, you know, just bouncing and kind of plump.

I can see a pig kind of working.

Yeah, go ahead and try that.

Let us know how that’s working out for you, okay?

Yeah, definitely.

If I have to sleep in the car, I’ll let you know.

Hey, Jessica, this was fun.

Thanks, Jessica.

Thank you, guys.

Take care now.

I appreciate you letting me be on the show.

Oh, our pleasure.

Have a wonderful week.

You call us again sometime, all right?

Okay.

Take care now.

All right.

You too.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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