α. 1600s– hogback.
β. (esp. in sense 2a and 2c) 1700s– hog's back, 1700s– hogsback.
hogbackn.
/ˈhɒɡbak/, U.S. /ˈhɔɡˌbæk/, /ˈhɑɡˌbæk/ 1. † a. An arched back of a fish resembling that of a pig. Obsolete.
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the world > animals > fish > parts of fish > [noun] > back
hogback1661
the world > life > the body > external parts of body > trunk > back > [noun] > types of
hogback1661
poker back1890
1661 I. Walton Compl. Angler (ed. 3) i. iv. 72 Note that a hog back and a little head to any fish, either Trout, Salmon or other fish, is a sign that that fish is in season.
1758 R. Griffiths Descr. Thames 190 The Bream has a sharp Hogback.
1786 W. Gilpin Observ. Picturesque Beauty II. 257 The disagreeable rounding line, which we have just called the hog-back.
1800 S. Taylor Angling in All its Branches ii. 200 [The bream] has a hog back, of a colour between blue and black.
1896 Trans. & Proc. N.Z. Inst. 1895 28 72 These clouds..seem like fishes with smooth hog backs.
b. Chiefly North American. A fish with an arched back; esp. the humpback salmon, Oncorhynchus gorbuscha. Now rare.In quot. 1832: the lookdown, Selene vomer.
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the world > animals > fish > parts of fish > [noun] > back > fish having
hogback1832
the world > animals > fish > superorder Acanthopterygii (spiny fins) > order Perciformes (perches) > suborder Scombroidei (mackerel) > [noun] > family Carangidae (scads) > member of genus Selene or Vomer (moon-fish)
moonfish1646
hogback1832
sunfish1877
lookdown1882
horse-fish1883
horse-head1884
the world > animals > fish > class Osteichthyes or Teleostomi > order Salmoniformes (salmon or trout) > family Salmonidae (salmon) > [noun] > gorbuscha haddo (humpback)
humpback salmon1869
humpback1881
hogback1889
the world > animals > fish > unspecified types > [noun]
whalec950
tumbrelc1300
sprout1340
squame1393
codmop1466
whitefish1482
lineshark?a1500
salen1508
glaucus1509
bretcock1522
warcodling1525
razor1530
bassinatc1540
goldeney1542
smy1552
maiden1555
grail1587
whiting1587
needle1589
pintle-fish1591
goldfish1598
puffin fish1598
quap1598
stork1600
black-tail1601
ellops1601
fork-fish1601
sea-grape1601
sea-lizard1601
sea-raven1601
barne1602
plosher1602
whale-mouse1607
bowman1610
catfish1620
hog1620
kettle-fish1630
sharpa1636
carda1641
housewifea1641
roucotea1641
ox-fisha1642
sea-serpent1646
croaker1651
alderling1655
butkin1655
shamefish1655
yard1655
sea-dart1664
sea-pelican1664
Negro1666
sea-parrot1666
sea-blewling1668
sea-stickling1668
skull-fish1668
whale's guide1668
sennet1671
barracuda1678
skate-bread1681
tuck-fish1681
swallowtail1683
piaba1686
pit-fish1686
sand-creeper1686
horned hog1702
soldier1704
sea-crowa1717
bran1720
grunter1726
calcops1727
bennet1731
bonefish1734
Negro fish1735
isinglass-fish1740
orb1740
gollin1747
smelt1776
night-walker1777
water monarch1785
hardhead1792
macaw-fish1792
yellowback1796
sea-raven1797
blueback1812
stumpnose1831
flat1847
butterfish1849
croppie1856
gubbahawn1857
silt1863
silt-snapper1863
mullet-head1866
sailor1883
hogback1893
skipper1898
stocker1904
1832 Coll. New Hampsh. Hist. Soc. III. 86 The hogback or sunfish, as some call it, is a very attracting thing. It is about as large as the perch.
1889 H. W. Seton-Karr Ten Years' Wild Sports ix. 190 The river is a shallow little stream..but crowded with ‘hog-back’ salmon.
1890 Graphic (London) 20 Dec. 699/2 Then there are the ‘red’ and ‘silver’ varieties of salmon [in Alaska], but the other sorts, known as ‘steelhead’, ‘hogback’, and ‘dog’ salmon, are not so valuable for edible purposes.
1893 I. K. Funk et al. Standard Dict. Eng. Lang. I Hogback... 3. A trout or other fish having a hoglike back.
1923 Chambers's Jrnl. Dec. 791/2 Bill, said the latter, the hog-back run is come.
2. Something arched like a hog's back.† b. Coal Mining. A sharp rise in the floor of a coal seam. Obsolete.
a. A hill, mountain, or ridge with steeply sloping sides either side of a narrow crest which rises towards the centre. Also attributive in hogback mountain, hogback hill, hogback ridge.Frequently (with capital initial) in the names of such summits.
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the world > the earth > land > landscape > high land > ridge > [noun] > hogback
hogback1790
swine back1826
horseback1851
α.
β. 1790 J. Hassell Tour Isle of Wight II. xxxiv. 246 The ridge of hills, known by the name of the Hog's Back.1800 in Vermont Hist. Soc. Proc. 1920–21 (1921) 168 Whats call'd the hogs back is a ridge of mountains on the north side (of the Onion river, Vt.).1827 J. F. Cooper Red Rover i The hog's back over which the water pitches.1834 W. F. Napier Hist. War Peninsula (Rtldg.) II. xiii. ii. 209 A rugged hill..joined by a hog's-back ridge to the..mountain spine.1862 H. Marryat One Year in Sweden II. 388 Our way runs along a hogsback, till we reach the lake of Fur.1863 G. T. Lowth Wanderer West. France 216 There is a long elevated line of hill, a hog's-back, running from south to north.1973 Guardian 23 Jan. 13/1 The Prime Minister..will be there, in his retreat on the hogs-back of the Delimara peninsula.1998 J. Cope Mod. Antiquarian 196/2 They would then have climbed on to the barrow-lined Ridgeway which follows the east-west hogsback along Cherhill Down.1790 in J. Morse Geogr. Made Easy (ed. 2) 210 The Tryon and Hogback mountains are 220 miles northwest from Charleston.
1826 R. Mills Statistics S. Carolina 578 The Hogback mountain..is difficult of ascent.
1840 J. P. Kennedy Quodlibet 26 The farm where he now lives at the foot of the Hogback.
1847 in Executive Documents U.S. House of Representatives (31st Congress, 1st Sess.) (1849) No. 5. ii. 731 The banks [of a river]..worn in some places into hog-backs.
1896 Advance (Chicago) 1 Oct. 433 The dry knobs, or hog-backs, where the prairie breaks down to the streams.
1916 Geogr. Jrnl. 48 132 The fertile basins..are scored by small hogback ridges formed by the stronger beds.
1950 W. O. Douglas Of Men & Mountains xviii. 247 At points the hogback is only a few feet wide, with the ground dropping 1000 feet or more on each side at a dizzy pitch of 60 degrees.
2003 D. Gutteridge Solemn Vows i. 11 He's on foot now, climbing that hogback.
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the world > the earth > minerals > mineral deposits > features of stratum or vein > [noun] > rise or bulge in roof or floor
skew1789
roll1849
swell1855
hogback1867
horseback1881
1867 W. W. Smyth Treat. Coal & Coal-mining 27 Another sort of thinning is where the floor rises..sharply, in a ‘hog-back’ or saddle.
1883 W. S. Gresley Gloss. Terms Coal Mining Hog-back, sharply rising of the floor of a coal seam.
c. New Zealand. Chiefly in form hog's back. More fully hog's back cloud. A cloud with a distinctive arched top, often considered to herald bad weather.
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the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > cloud > [noun] > a cloud > storm-cloud
thunder-cloud1697
storm-cloud1822
thunderhead1851
storm-breeder1867
hogback1933
1933 N.Z. Alpine Jrnl. 5 xx. 180 Dark clouds..a bevy of ‘hog-backs’.
1933 N.Z. Alpine Jrnl. 5 xx. 235 A ‘hog's back’ warned that further storms were brewing.
1940 W. S. Gilkison Peaks, Packs 24 He showed me a hogsback... Term applied to a particularly unwelcome cloud only too well-known to climbers, and almost invariably heralding a north-west storm.
1971 N.Z. Listener 19 Apr. 56/5 In the end they saw some hogsbacks up above the col so they tossed it in.
1999 Nelson Mail (N.Z.) (Nexis) 1 Jan. 11 Landscapes baked bare to just boulders and sharp Marlborough mountains topped by tell-tale ‘hog's back’ clouds have in some cases been painted quite literally, complete with flying pigs.
3. Shipbuilding. = hog frame n.
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society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > parts of vessels > body of vessel > [noun] > downwards curvature > drooping at ends > frame or chain to prevent
hog chain1841
hog frame1845
hogging frame1860
hogback1886
1886 Waterbury (Connecticut) American 2 Apr. The strength of her hull and the solidity of her hog-back.
1911 Coast Seamen's Jrnl. 28 June 5/1 Shipmasters running into Coos Bay are making complaints because of a hogback left at the entrance to Pony Slough by the dredge Oregon.
1929 Newcomen Soc. Trans. 8 94 Americans..invented the very ingenious ‘hog-back’ by which a very shallow boat could be made stiff enough to be taken over practically anything.
2001 Motor Ship Nov. 21/1 The requirement for a 50° slope on the hog-backs means they considerably eat into the cargo capacity of the hold.
4. Archaeology. More fully hogback tombstone. Chiefly in Scotland and northern England: a rectangular grave cover dating from the early medieval period with a curved top and often with rounded sides.
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the world > life > death > disposal of corpse > burial > grave or burial-place > [noun] > stone covering grave
stone1303
gravestone1387
through-stonea1400
througha1425
burial-stone?a1500
trough1501
ledgerc1510
tombstone?1520
lair-stone1538
humeta1647
plank1660
ledger-stone1851
flatstone1855
grave-cover1875
hogback1889
1889 R. S. Ferguson Carlisle iv. 54 The coped tombstones, commonly called Saxon hogbacks.
1963 F. Burgess Eng. Churchyard Memorials ii. 86 The..Hogback..term was coined to describe a type of memorial with characteristic curved silhouette.
1975 D. M. Wilson Archaeol. Anglo-Saxon Eng. vi. 254 Shingling is demonstrated pictorially in the hog-back tombstone series.
2001 J. Lang Corpus Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpt. VI. iv. 21 The distribution of hogbacks is at its most dense in northern Yorkshire.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1661