Meanings
hoggan1
plural hoggans · alternative hoggen
- CornwalldialectalA pork pasty.
Tom Trevarton had a piece of hoggan weth un.
1866, Higham, Dial., 144 more examples
Some of the mine-owners provide no facilities whatever for the children to rewarm their pasties and hoggans […]
1852, Chambers's Repository of Instructing and Amusing TractsAnd these are no ordinary feasts; what with her pasties, saffron cake, "hoggans", "figgy hobbins", marinated pilchards, and, of course, her delicious cream, the Cornish woman has many unusual dishes with which to whet the appetite.
1948, Norman Wymer, The Southern Shires, page 46[…] those who had to eat cold hoggans or pasties.
2004, Lynne Mayers, Balmaidens“Of course, the truly poor people had to make do with hoggans,” Tamsin was saying. “Hoggans?” Chloe mumbled around a mouthful of herby pasty. “Flatbread with a morsel or two of pork baked into it,” Tamsin explained. "My father said they were hard as rocks. […] Don't worry, dear. I won't serve you hoggans."
2017, Kathleen Ernst, Mining for Justice, Llewellyn Worldwide, →ISBN
Hoggan2
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*suH-
- Proto-Celtic*sukkos
- Proto-Brythonic*hux
- Old Cornishhoggan
- Englishhoggan
Use of the term in Cornwall is attributed to Old Cornish hoggan, hogen (“pork pasty; pie”), from hoch (“pig”), from Proto-Brythonic *hux, from Proto-Celtic *sukkos, from Proto-Indo-European *suH-, related to Welsh hwch (“sow”). However, the term was also common in Essex, so perhaps compare Old English hogg.
More words from Old Cornish, Proto-Brythonic, Proto-Celtic
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
hoggan. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hoggan
“hoggan.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hoggan. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hoggan,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hoggan.
Source: hoggan on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.