# Police called "Pigs" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [September 24, 2013, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-called-pigs/669600 "2013-09-24T20:42:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![hazlnut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@hazlnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hazlnut)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-called-pigs/669600/1 "2013-09-24T20:42:59Z")
[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2209/why-are-the-police-called-cops-pigs-or-the-fuzz](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2209/why-are-the-police-called-cops-pigs-or-the-fuzz) The OED reference seems to refer to a regional or local joke, possibly involving a politician and/or a town fat 😉 on pig humor and references. Either way, it’s a rhetorical device, referring to the man by something associated with him – meant in fun. The “Bow Street Runner” reference is unclear – if they were the police and they were called “pigs” – by whom and why. Where was their headquarters–what did it have to do with pigs? And, most importantly, how did a regional joke from early 1800’s Britain make it Berkley, Ca in the 1960’s and the counter-culture movement? The explanation given: > [@](#): > > The usage was probably confined to the criminal classes until the 1960s, when it was taken up by protestors. 150 Years? – If this is the case, the why no references to the term in early crime fiction or newspapers – or a few criminals in Britain and the States on the record using the term “pig” when referring to the police? The explanation doesn’t hold up unless you can trace the term back to that OED reference which is vague at best. I think Animal Farm is the most logical source for the term “pig” referring to authority or police staring in the 1960’s. ---
**Author:** ![Gateway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dbc845/32.png) [@Gateway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gateway)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-called-pigs/669600/2 "2013-09-24T21:00:08Z")
Possibly cuz a lotta cops are fat and since both police and pig starts with P, it stuck. Also it is a term people see as negative, so that is liked among groups who frown on cops ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-called-pigs/669600/3 "2013-09-24T21:44:26Z")
I wonder if it has anything to do with pig iron? ---
**Author:** ![runningdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@runningdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runningdude)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-called-pigs/669600/4 "2013-09-24T22:06:53Z")
What I found interesting is that while Police in France inherited the title equivalent to “Esquire”, in the United States, it was the Lawyers that got the title! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-called-pigs/669600/5 "2013-09-25T08:16:09Z")
The OED reference is not about a local joke. It just happened that the first printed use was in London. The OED quotes a dictionary of slang, which in turn quotes something written by a criminal in 1811: > **[pig | Etymology, origin and meaning of pig by etymonline](https://www.etymonline.com/word/pig)** > > PIG Meaning: "a young pig" (mid-13c., late 12c. as a surname), probably from Old English \*picg, found in compounds,… See origin and meaning of pig. It was apparently used strictly by criminals for the next 150 years, and the OED archives apparently have uses of it during that time. These criminals were apparently those in various English-speaking countries. Apparently someone in the protest movements of the 1960’s heard the term being used and spread its use further. “Pig” has been used for centuries as a general term of insult. There’s no evidence that it has anything to do with pig iron or policemen being fat. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2013, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-called-pigs/669600/6 "2013-09-25T09:09:15Z")
> [@hazlnut](#): > > The “Bow Street Runner” reference is unclear – if they were the police and they were called “pigs” – by whom and why. Where was their headquarters–what did it have to do with pigs? I think you are possibly misunderstanding what Dex wrote. \*The OED cites an 1811 reference to a “pig” as a Bow Street Runner–the early police force, named after the location of their headquarters, before Sir Robert Peel and the Metropolitan Police Force (see above.) \* That doesn’t say that they were called ‘pigs’ after the location of their HQ. It says they were called Bow Street Runners after the location of their HQ. The location was Bow Street. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2013, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-called-pigs/669600/7 "2013-09-26T10:24:54Z")
Many, many thanks to **Wendell** and **Peter** for saving me the time and trouble to look up that old staff report and try to find the research, etc. to answer the questions! ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-called-pigs/669600/8 "2013-09-27T05:36:41Z")
> [@runningdude](#): > > What I found interesting is that while Police in France inherited the title equivalent to “Esquire”, in the United States, it was the Lawyers that got the title! A better equivalent of “gendarme” would be “[man-at-arms](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-at-arms)”, an armoured horseman who was below a knight and above a foot soldier in status in medieval armies. These were usually professional soldiers, and were often hired as garrison troops with a secondary law enforcement function. In France, the Gendarmerie became a formal branch of the army, who later became responsible for the military police, and eventually only for the MPs when the armoured horsemen function became obsolete, and finally for the national police force as well (which is still a paramilitary organization attached to the French army). Outside of France, a Gendarmerie is usually a national police force (sometimes the only police) as opposed to municipal or state/province/etc. level police. (The French title of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is _Gendarmerie royale du Canada_.) ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2013, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-called-pigs/669600/9 "2013-09-27T23:16:35Z")
Later on, “man-at-arms” became virtually equivalent to “knight”, when changes in arms and tactics meant that knights normally fought dismounted, anyway.