“Porcupine,” formerly “porke despyne,” comes from the Old French porc-espin, literally “spiny pig” or “thorny pig,” from Latin porcus “hog” (from PIE root porko- “young pig”) + spina, “thorn, spine.”
Much like raccoon, the word porcupine has been subject to all manner of letter-salad spellings, including portepyn, porkpen, porkenpick, porpoynt, and porpentine (which appears in Hamlet, “Like quills upon the fretful porpentine”).
Discover more from Useless Etymology
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
