pig dog

See also: pigdog

English

Alternative forms

• pigdog
• pig-dog

Etymology

Calque of German Schweinehund.

(surfing stance): Taj Burrow offers two (perhaps fanciful) explanations: that it is from the strange dog-like face most surfers get when in the stance (page 119) or that the stance is low and sturdy like a dog (glossary page 171).

Pronunciation

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Noun

pig dog (plural pig dogs)

1. (Australia, New Zealand) A dog bred to hunt wild pigs, typically based on breeds such as Staffordshire Terrier and English Bull Terrier.
   • 1908, Edward Jerningham Wakefield, Robert Stout, Adventure in New Zealand from 1839 to 1844, published 2010, page 350:

     The pig-dogs are of rather a mongrel breed, partaking largely of the bull-dog, but mixed with the cross of mastiff and greyhound, which forms the New South Wales kangaroo-dog.

   • 1961, Royal Society of New Zealand, Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand: Zoology, Volume 2, page 221,

     Pig dogs have a have a particularly high incidence of E. granulosus and T. hydatigena compared with infections in farm gogs and [this] may be related to the eating of infected sheep carrion rather than wild pigs.

   • 2009, Jane Duckworth, Not Every Dog Has His Day: The Treatment of Dogs in Australia, page 162:

     These so-called ‘pig dogs’ chase after the wild pigs, often through rough terrain, and bring them down so that the following hunter can shoot the quarry. There is normally more than one dog involved in the hunt. The pig dogs tend to be powerful crossbreds with Great Dane, Bull Mastiff and/or Pit Bull Terrier blood and sometimes with a dash of Irish Wolfhound or Scottish Deerhound to give them more speed and height.

   • 2009, Evan McHugh, Birdsville, Penguin Group, EasyRead Large Edition, page 139,

     Zeus was Ben′s pig dog, an Irish wolfhound crossed with other breeds of hunting dog.

2. (surfing) A stance used for surfing tubes on one’s backhand. The surfer crouches low over a bent front knee, back leg extending back, outside hand holding onto the outside rail, and inside arm extended upwards touching the face of the wave as a guide (or digging in to slow down).
   • 2008, Peter Diel, Eric Menges, Surfing: In Search of the Perfect Wave, page 99:

     The trick here is to do a so-called “pig-dog”. Standing sideways on your board with your back to the wave you will stall by twisting forward (in relation to the tip of your board) shoulder back, and using the arm belonging to it, drag your hand in the water. At the same time your rear hand grabs just behind the outside rail just somewhere near your forward foot. Now look at yourself and you will know why it is called a ‘pig-dog’.

3. A contemptible or worthless person.
   • 1915, Joseph Conrad, Victory: An island tale, Penguin Classics, published 1995, →ISBN, page 95:

     He proceeded to call Heyst many names, of which ‘pig-dog’ was not the worst, with such vehemence that he actually choked himself.

   • 1941 March 8, Lord Snooty, The Beano:

     To der pig-dog Lord Snooty from der Great Adolf Hitler.

   • 1975, French soldier, Monty Python and the Holy Grail:

     You don't frighten us, English pig-dog! Go and boil your bottoms, son of a silly person.

Synonyms

• swinehound

Verb

pig dog (third-person singular simple present pig dogs, present participle pig dogging, simple past and past participle pig dogged)

1. To surf in the pig dog stance.
   • 2003, Taj Burrow, edited by Sam McIntosh, Taj Burrow’s Book of Hot Surfing, Rollingyouth Press, →ISBN, page 119:

     Pig dogging from the take-off is easier than surfing along the wave, lining up a section, grabbing the rail and setting up the tube.