A Schwein is a pig and a Hund a dog. Put the two together and you have a word designating someone who might be called a "bastard" in English. But the meaning can vary considerably depending on context, with a trace of admiration mixed in at one end and a completely derisive, contemptuous connotation at the other end.
I experimented with several ways of drawing the creature in question and show the two I considered the most successful ones—one illustrating the easy approach, where the animal is split into two halves crosswise, and one illustrating a more difficult approach, where the animal is split lengthwise. I have not tried what appears to me to be the most difficult approach, to draw a creature that would result from mating a pig with a dog. One problems is that some dog breeds already look as if they resulted from that kind of union—how does one draw a cartoon of a cartoon? But I haven't given up yet...
As to spelling: The e between the two constituent nouns is optional and can be added to make the transition from n to h easier to pronounce.
[Source: Wild Things in the German Language: Kindle version | iBooks version]
I love them both. The look on the dog's face is priceless.
ReplyDeleteOoh, my brother always called me this when I was small. I never forgave him for calling me a pig dog.I understood the other connotations as well as the literal translation...not that this made it any better. Grr :p
ReplyDeleteHmm--I've never heard the insult applied to someone of the female persuasion...
ReplyDeleteI think my brother was happy to apply any insult he could think of, whether or not it was appropriate! :p
ReplyDeleteThe term "pig-dog" was notably popularized by Monty Python's movie Holy Grail where King Arthur was being taunted by the French soldiers... "You don't frighten us, English pig-dog! Go and boil your bottoms, son of a silly person."
ReplyDeleteThere's also a subvariant of these animals: Der innere Schweinehund. If you really should do something (because you're on a deadline or it's good for your health etc.), but you don't want to do it, it's your innerer Schweinehund who's keeping you from doing it.
ReplyDelete@Anon: You are right, and I'm aware of this subspecies. For personal reasons, though, I could not bring myself to mention it: I once (a long time ago) lived for a week in the house of an extremely right-wing "fencing fraternity" (Schlagende Verbindung). Their rationale for the obligatory fencing with sharp sabers that are meant to draw blood and leave a permanent scar (Schmiss) in the face: It forces you to overcome this inner Schweinehund, i.e., your innate cowardness, by not flinching when the hit is about to happen. Ever since, I hesitate to mention this animal.
ReplyDeleteBTW In this connection, it's always Schweinehund, with the "e."
You have obviously never seen a Basenji, my kids refer to it as a cat-pig-dog. It cleans itself like a cat, has a curly tail, and is a dog. I hated the bugger. http://basenji.net/
ReplyDelete