Meanings
plural piggins
- dialectalA small pail, can, or ladle with the handle on the side; a lading-can. In the colonial era, some buckets were made like a small barrel, but with one stave left extra long. This stave would be carved into a handle so the bucket could be used as an oversized scoop for scattering grain, slopping the hogs, etc.
At length a little negro girl appeared, walking straight as an arrow, with a piggin full of water on her head.
1899, Charles W. Chesnutt, The Goophered Grapevine1 more example
[H]e pulled out a little wooden stool, an' stud up upon it, and dipped a little piggen into the pitcher, an' tuk out the full av it, an' put it beside the stool, an' thin sot down undher the pitcher, an' begun to work at puttin' a heelpiece an a bit iv a brogue jist fittin' fur himsilf.
1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 373
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA small pail, can, or ladle with the handle on the side; a lading-can. In the colonial era, some buckets were made like a small barrel, but with one stave left extra long. This stave would be carved into a handle so the bucket could be used as an oversized scoop for scattering grain, slopping the hogs, etc.
Origin
- Middle Englishpygyn
- Englishpiggin
From Middle English pygyn, from pig (“container for wine”), possibly so named from being made of pigskin. Compare Scottish Gaelic pigean, diminutive of pigeadh, pige (“an earthen jar, pitcher, or pot”), Irish pigín, Welsh picyn.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
piggin. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/piggin
“piggin.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/piggin. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “piggin,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/piggin.
Source: piggin on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.