α. See pig n.1 and tail n.1
β. 1600s pigs tail.
pigtailn.
/ˈpɪɡteɪl/, U.S. /ˈpɪɡˌteɪl/ 1. A short length or twist of something.† b. English regional (northern). A small candle. Cf. pigtail candle n. at Compounds 2. Obsolete.† c. Nautical. A short length of rope. Obsolete. rare.
a. As a mass noun: tobacco twisted into a thin rope or roll.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > use of drugs and poison > tobacco > [noun] > tobacco in a roll, cake, or stick
cane-tobacco1600
pudding tobacco1601
roll1602
tobacco roll1602
canea1612
pudding-packa1618
prick1666
pigtail1681
nova1688
prick tobacco1688
plug1729
plug tobacco1788
twist1791
carrot1808
cavendish1839
nail-rod1848
hard1865
twist tobacco1894
1681 S. Colvil Mock Poem ii. 8 There lyes half a dozen elnes of pig-tail.
1740 J. Swift Will (1746) 20 I bequeath to Mr. John Grattan..my Silver Box..in which I desire the said John to keep the Tobacco he usually cheweth, called Pigtail.
1790 Pennsylvania Packet 13 July 1/4 Tobacco and Snuff Manufactory Carried on by Jacob Beninghove... Has and always keeps, a constant supply of the best Pigtail.
1818 G. Daniel Doctor Bolus vi. 15 My heart is swelling with a big tale Of woe—let's see, I'll try a little pig-tail.
1875 J. Miller First Fam'lies Sierras 87 A Missourian..lay in his bunk.., smoking his pipe of ‘pigtail’ after supper.
1907 Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) 28 Mar. 13/6 ‘Hah!’ he sighed, taking out a steel tobacco box and knife, and cutting off a bit of pigtail.
1993 R. Murphy Smash & Grab v. 68/1 ‘Pigtail’, a thin black rope of tobacco, was the standard currency of the prison.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > light > artificial light > an artificial light > candle > [noun] > candle(s) defined by price or weight
puttock1691
makeweight1695
long four1798
pigtail1824
long lady1847
fourteens1883
1824 W. Carr Horæ Momenta Cravenæ 99 The watching of the pig-tail was a superstitious ceremony observed in Craven..on the Eve of St. Mark. On that evening, a party of males or females..place on the floor a lighted pig-tail, for so a small or farthing candle is denominated.
1840 A. Langton Jrnl. (1950) 143 Ten dippings made very respectable candles today, whereas what I was obliged to make in summer after four-and-twenty [dippings] were most miserable pig-tails.
1867 J. Harland & T. T. Wilkinson Lancs. Folk-lore 140 On the fast of St. Agnes she watches a small candle called a ‘pig-tail’, to see the passing image of her future husband.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > equipment of vessel > ropes or chains other than rigging or cable > [noun] > types of short ropes
leg1611
snorter1750
snotter1815
pigtail1894
1894 Daily Tel. 18 Oct. 6/5 Hit..with a ‘pigtail’, a piece of thick rope.
d. A short length of flexible braided electrical wire. Also: a cable running from the back of a tractor to a trailer, supplying it with electricity.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > electrical engineering > operation of machinery > [noun] > flexible conductor
pigtail1903
the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > transmission of electricity, conduction > [noun] > conductor > device
conductor1742
sub-conductor1887
pigtail1971
1903 C. C. Hawkins & F. Wallis Dynamo (ed. 3) xix. 606 The flexible copper conductor..forms a twisted pig-tail with enough slack to allow of the normal amount of brush movement.
1949 Jrnl. Appl. Physics 20 805/2 Some cartridges..were fitted with pigtails for convenience in wiring.
1971 M. Tak Truck Talk 118 Pigtail, the cable that transmits electricity to the trailer from the tractor.
1992 UNIX Today! 17 Feb. 14/1 CSP has a version with an 18-inch ‘pigtail’ cable holding the AUI plug.
2.
a. A plait or tail of hair.In early use: a single plait or queue of hair hanging down from the back of the head, as in a particular style of wig, or as worn by soldiers and sailors in the late 18th and early 19th centuries; a long plait of hair as formerly worn by the Chinese. Now chiefly: each of two tails of (usually plaited) hair hanging from either side of the head, as worn esp. by young girls (cf. ponytail n.).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > beautification > beautification of the person > beautification of the hair > styles of hair > [noun] > tresses or plaits
tracec1380
plight?1387
tressa1400
plexc1450
braid1530
tuck1532
buoy-rope1546
trammels1589
entrammelling1598
border1601
point1604
pleat?1606
trammelets1654
maze1657
brede1696
queue1724
pigtail?1725
tie1725
cue1731
tuck-up1749
tutulus1753
club1786
tail1799
French twist1850
Grecian plait1851
French plait1871
horse's tail1873
Gretchen braid, plait1890
shimada1910
ponytail1916
French braid1937
cane row1939
dreadlocks1960
French pleat1964
Tom Jones1964
corn row1971
dread1984
club-pigtail-
?1725 At the Blue Peruke in Red-Lion-street (T. Barker, Peruke-maker) (single sheet) (advt.) His Prices are Two Shillings and Six Pence for each Bob..and Three Shillings a Pig-Tail.
a1774 A. Tucker Light of Nature (1777) iv. xxxv. 254 The French carpenter cannot saw his boards, without a long pig-tail and ruffled shirt.
1839 C. Dickens Nicholas Nickleby xiv. 122 [Mrs. Kenwigs' girls] had flaxen hair tied with blue ribands hanging in luxuriant pigtails down their backs.
1874 Lady Herbert tr. J. A. von Hübner Ramble round World I. 280 Chinamen..with their black caps, equally black pig-tails..and their black felt shoes.
1892 ‘A. M.’ From Austral. & Japan 226 He..wiped his grizzled moustache and twisted its extremities into pig-tails.
1922 E. von Arnim Enchanted April (1989) 45 Carlyle had scowled at her; Matthew Arnold had held her on his knee; Tennyson had sonorously rallied her on the length of her pig-tail.
1958 Life 19 May 91 She has been so vividly remembered for her freckles, pigtails, tilted nose, wistful eyes and gaminlike cuteness that everybody still imagines her that way.
1991 Hair's How No. 34. 808/2 Divide the ponytail in two, then plait to form two pigtails.
b. colloquial (frequently derogatory and offensive). A person who wears a pigtail, esp. a Chinese person. Now rare or historical.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > nations > native or inhabitant of Asia > the Chinese > [noun] > native or inhabitant of China
Cathayan?1520
Chinean1577
Son of Heaven1579
Chino1588
chinois1594
Chinese1606
Chinesianc1615
Chinaman1621
China1638
Chinist1654
Chinensian1655
pigtail1823
celestial1842
Johnny1844
coolie1849
John1853
Chinky1871
chow1872
Chink1880
monk1903
Pong1910
power point1986
1823 M. E. Barker in London Lit. Gaz. 6 Sept. 573/1 You shall have all their pictures, from the president..down to the last old Pigtail admitted.
1886 Cornhill Mag. July 55 Sweetmeats..being great favourites with the ‘pigtails’.
1907 C. MacAlister Old Pioneering Days 207 The fall broke the poor ‘pigtail's’ neck.
1947–8 in H. Beattie Pioneer Recolls. (1956) 39 Later they put on Peter, a modern ‘Chink’, to help him but Ah See chased him off saying ‘Him no Chinese—him no pigtail’.
2001 Jrnl. Eastern Township Stud. (Nexis) Mar. 19–36 The Chinese were referred to by slang names like ‘Yellow Peril’, ‘Celestials’, ‘Sojourners’, ‘Chinks’, ‘Pigtails’, and ‘The Menace’.
3. = pig-tailed macaque n. at pigtailed adj. Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > order Primates > suborder Anthropoidea (higher primates) > [noun] > group Catarrhinae (Old World monkey) > family Cercopithecidae > genus Macaca (macaque) > miscellaneous types of
pigtailed monkey1758
pigtail1774
kra1822
pigtailed baboon1824
pig-tailed macaque1840
round-faced monkey1864
pigtail macaque1867
1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth IV. 215 The Maimon of Buffon, which Edwards calls the Pigtail, is the last of the baboons, and..no larger than a cat.
1966 Science 23 Dec. 1559/3 Since male pigtails are usually killed off quickly by hunters, it is possible that at some point only one or two females of the pigtail troop survived.
1992 Science (Nexis) 19 June 1630 With a large population of pigtails close at hand, they decided it was worth a try.
Compounds
C1. derogatory. Designating or relating to a person who wears a pigtail; designating something characteristic of the period when pigtailed wigs were worn; (hence) designating something old-fashioned, pedantic, or excessively formal, as pigtail drill, pigtail party, pigtail professor, pigtail Tory, etc. Now rare.In quot. 1899 designating a party favourable to the Chinese (see sense 2b).
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > relative time > the past > oldness or ancientness > [adjective] > old-fashioned or antiquated
moth-frettenOE
antiquate?a1425
antique?1532
rusty1549
moth-eaten1551
musty1575
worm-eatenc1575
overyear1584
out of date1589
old-fashioned1592
out of date1592
worm-eat1597
old-fashion1599
ancient1601
outdated1616
out-of-fashion1623
over-aged1623
superannuateda1634
thorough-old1639
overdateda1641
trunk-hosea1643
antiquitated1645
antiquated1654
out-of-fashioned1671
unmodern1731
of the old school1749
auld-farrant1750
old-fangled1764
fossila1770
fogram1772
passé1775
unmodernized1775
oxidated1791
moss-covered1792
square-toeda1797
old-fashionable1807
pigtail1817
behind the times1826
slow1827
fossilized1828
rococo1836
antiquish1838
old-timey1850
out of season1850
moss-grown1851
old style1858
antiqued1859
pigtaily1859
prehistoric1859
backdated1862
played1864
fossiled1866
bygone1869
mossy-backed1870
old-worldly1878
past-time1889
outmoded1896
dated1900
brontosaurian1909
antiquey1926
horse-and-buggy1926
vintage1928
Neolithic1934
time-warped1938
demoded1941
steam age1941
hairy1946
old school1946
rinky-dink1946
time warp1954
Palaeolithic1957
retardataire1958
throwback1968
wally1969
antwacky1975
1817 Cobbett's Weekly Polit. Reg. 25 Jan. 121 What, then, do the Pigtail gentry, assembled at the ‘Police Office, Manchester’, object to this?
1865 M. Pattison in N. Brit. Rev. 42 253 Heyne was essentially a dull, wooden man,—a pigtail professor after all.
1885 Leisure Hour Jan. 32/1 Emancipation from the ‘pigtail drill’.
1898 Athenæum 19 Mar. 366/1 He was a typical ‘pigtail Tory’.
1899 Daily News 25 Oct. 2/1 Mr. Yerburgh, the leader of what was known last Session as ‘the Pigtail Party’ in the House of Commons, is contemplating a journey to China.
1909 Englishman Apr. 295 Orchestral interpretation need no longer be at the mercy of the ‘pig-tail’ school.
C2. † pigtail candle n. Obsolete rare = sense 1b.
ΚΠ
1703 R. Thoresby Let. 27 Apr. in J. Ray et al. Philos. Lett. (1718) 334 A Pigtail Candle, the least, put in to make weight.
pigtail macaque n. = pig-tailed macaque n. at pigtailed adj. Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > order Primates > suborder Anthropoidea (higher primates) > [noun] > group Catarrhinae (Old World monkey) > family Cercopithecidae > genus Macaca (macaque) > miscellaneous types of
pigtailed monkey1758
pigtail1774
kra1822
pigtailed baboon1824
pig-tailed macaque1840
round-faced monkey1864
pigtail macaque1867
1790 Historical Pocket Libr. VI. 69 Little Baboon, and the Pigtail Baboon are all that remain of this species.]
1867 J. G. Wood Pop. Nat. Hist.: Mammalia 16 Bruh or Pig-tail Macaque.—Macacus nemestrinus.
1992 Sci. News 20 June 405/1 Corey..has successfully infected with HIV-1 a common type of Indonesian monkey called the pigtail macaque.
pigtail tobacco n. = sense 1a.
ΚΠ
1737 S.-Carolina Gaz. 12 Feb. 3/2 Silk handkerchiefs for men and women, scotch snuff, rapee and english pig-tail tobacco.
1883 R. L. Stevenson Treasure Island iv. 32 A piece of pigtail tobacco bitten away at the end.
1992 R. Park Fence around Cuckoo 37 It had..an interior atmosphere thick with the woeful fumes of torori, the black native pigtail tobacco.
pigtail toupée n. rare a toupée with a tail of hair at the back.
ΚΠ
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. xv. [Circe] 479 Smiling, lifts the hat and displays a shaven poll from the crown of which bristles a pigtail toupee tied with an orange topknot.
pigtail wig n. a wig with a tail of hair at the back.
ΚΠ
1730 E. Thomas Metamorphosis of Town 22 Sir, Do not look so fierce, and big, It is a modish Pigtail Wig.
1865 C. T. Brooks tr. J. P. F. Richter Hesperus II. xxvi. 34 He..slowly drew the pig-tail wig like an ascending hair-balloon up into the air.
2003 Manch. Evening News (Nexis) 28 Feb. 25 To play Watt, Stephen dons breeches and stockings, waistcoat and a pigtail wig.
Derivatives
ˈpigtail-wise adv. rare
ΚΠ
1886 J. Ashby-Sterry Lazy Minstrel 199 Her ample tresses one descries Are closely plaited, pig-tail-wise.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1681