Why would you go the whole hog

By Hermione Gray

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Why would you go the whole hog
...asks J Arnold. The phrase, 'To go the whole hog' means to do something thoroughly and completely, so it would certainly get the job done.

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What's a hog got to do with it
It's not entirely certain why a hog, or where it originates, but the Oxford Dictionary of Idioms claims that it's got something to do with a fable in Cowper's The Love of the World: Hypocrisy Detected (1779).

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Come again
The story goes something like this...Muslims are forbidden by their religion to eat pork, but some who fancied a nibble claimed that Muhammad had only meant that they weren't to eat a certain part of the animal. Unfortunately, they couldn't decide which part that should be.

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How did they get around that, then
Well, each ate a piece of the hog which, according to his conscience, was absolutely not the forbidden piece. And between them, they ate the whole hog.

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Is that the only use of the phrase
No, the ODI also notes that this was recorded as a political expression in America in the early 19th century, and that as far back as 1835 a source claimed that it originated in Virginia where it marked a democrat from a federalist.

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Which one was the hog
Now, now. There's no reason to believe that hog was a pejorative term. A popular North American term, to 'live high on the hog' means to live in luxury, so hogs are good!

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