Etymology

hedgehog

H4E1D2G2E1H4O1G2

Today it means: A small mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, characterized by their spiny back and often by the habit of rolling up into a ball when attacked, native to Afro-Eurasia. Full definition →

Middle English heyghoge
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The story

  1. Middle English · inherited fromheyghoge
  2. English todayhedgehog

From Middle English heyghoge; equivalent to hedge + hog. Eclipsed non-native Middle English yrchoun, irchoun (“hedgehog”), from Old French hirchoun, herichon (“hedgehog”); and displaced earlier Middle English il, from Old English īl, iġil (“hedgehog”). In the philosophical sense, from the 1953 essay The Hedgehog and the Fox by Isaiah Berlin. Compare typologically Korean 고슴도치 (goseumdochi) (<<+ Middle Korean 돝 (twoth, “pig, swine”)).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.