2/2/2024 0 Comments Pinggy bank![]() Whatever the etymology, the large flow of German migrants to the US in the 19th century helped popularise the way we see piggy banks today. “The pig refers not to their shape but to the class of earthenware items to which they belonged.” “Scots named their coin banks ‘pirly pigs’, probably from the older Scots ‘pyrl’, to thrust or poke, suggesting the action of inserting a coin,” it says. “ have been influenced by the animal sense of pig, because a few items, such as ceramic hot-water bottles, are smoothly rounded like a pig’s body and have indeed been called ‘pigs’.” It even suggests the word “pig” was used from about 1450 to describe general earthenware products. One etymological site, World Wide Words, says there was no such thing as clay called “pygg” – orange or any other colour. Many believe, however, that someone has been telling porkies that the “pygg” theory is baloney. Soon the tale of the orange claypot, coin-munching Miss Piggy hogged the limelight and became the established origin story. It’s said that by the 18th century “pygg bank” became “pig bank” and then “piggy bank”.Īfter being trotted out in Panati’s 1989 book, numerous clickbait stories fed the unproven theory to the hungry internet. “Potters, not usually etymologists, simply cast the bank in the shape of its common, everyday name,” Panati writes. It seems that even though “pygg” would have been pronounced “pug” by locals in the Middle Ages, language conventions changed and it eventually sounded like “pig”. But the name persisted as the clay was forgotten.” “A ‘pygg jar’ was not yet shaped like a pig. “Frugal people then as now saved cash in kitchen pots and jars,” Panati writes. A more popular story is that piggy banks evolved through a coincidence … and a quirk of the evolving English language.Īccording to Charles Panati’s 1989 book, The Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, metal was scarce and expensive during the Middle Ages, so Western Europeans made dishes and pots out of an orange clay called “pygg”. One theory is that Italian Franciscan friar Oderico of Pordenone, perhaps the only Westerner in the Majapahit court in the 14th century, brought the idea back home with him. The story of how piggy banks became part of Western culture is more muddied. Many in the East believe boars were chosen as a symbol of prosperity because of their big round bellies and connection with Earth’s spirits. Like its modern porcine cousin, Indonesia’s wild boar (or “celeng”) is fertile and loves eating and wallowing in mud. It’s believed the Javanese used these slotted vessels to store Chinese copper coins. The most famous of these terracotta piggy banks are from the Indonesian island of Java and dated from the Majapahit empire that ruled for just over 200 years from 1293. Many examples of money banks exist today from the ancient East, and they are often shaped like wild boars. They were made cheaply, too, because the only way to get the coins was by literally “breaking the bank”. They were typically made with a coin slot in the top to encourage saving and discourage theft. ![]() The first thing to acknowledge is that people have used “money banks” since ancient times. It remains a mystery how grunty little piggies became associated with small, personalised coin receptacles. But even the direct connection between pigs and money is curious. The modern concept of the “piggy bank”, first popularised in the United States in the early 20th century, has a lot to do with this reputation. ![]() With February 5 marking the beginning of the Year of the Pig on the Chinese calendar, it’s worth considering how the humble porcine became a symbol of good fortune. But with the majesty of the world’s menagerie on offer, you might think humans would choose a cute hoarder, such as a squirrel, or a creature with more pleasant attributes, such as a goose, chicken or anything theoretically capable of laying a golden egg.īut, no – the pig remains synonymous with luck and wealth. The pig’s renowned poor personal hygiene and questionable diet don’t make it unloveable, of course.
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