porcine

adjective

por·​cine ˈpȯr-ˌsīn 

: of, relating to, or suggesting swine : piggish

Did you know?

Pigs are rarely given credit for their high intelligence or their friendliness as pets, but instead are mocked for their habit of cooling themselves in mud puddles and the aggressive way they often go after food. While porcine isn't as negative a term as swinish, it may describe things that are fat, greedy, pushy, or generally piggish—but primarily fat. Porky Pig and Miss Piggy aren't particularly porcine in their behavior, only in their appearance—that is, pink and pudgy.

Examples of porcine in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

On the health front (and on the pig front again) my stomach churned at the idea that many baby vaccines contain a porcine carrier. — Aneesa Bodiat, New York Times, 12 May 2020

Doctors have been using porcine heart valves to replace damaged ones in humans since the 1960s. — Bill Sullivan, The Conversation, 5 June 2020

But as Jim Robbins reports for the New York Times, these porcine menaces are spreading. — Brigit Katz, Smithsonian, 18 Dec. 2019

In the first film, peaceful flightless birds battled the invasion of an ingratiating porcine population, led by Leonard (Bill Hader), who had the ulterior motive of stealing their eggs for food. — Katie Walsh, chicagotribune.com, 12 Aug. 2019

Word History

Etymology

Latin porcinus, from porcus pig — more at farrow

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for porcine

• beanie
• genie
• sweeney
• sweeny
• teeny
• acini
• aldine
• amine
• arsine
• carinii
• cosine
• delphine

Medical Definition

porcine

adjective

por·​cine ˈpȯr-ˌsīn 

: of or derived from swine

porcine heterografts