In Political Slang, “Pork” Is a Staple
- Posted by: Mark Peters
- on February 27, 2009 at 8:00 am
The many linguistic uses of pork—from pork barrel to porkulus and beyond.
“Pork pork pork!” So said the Swedish chef. Or was that “Bork bork bork”? Whatever.
Someone somewhere, muppet or organic lifeform, is always accusing politicians of pork, which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as “Government funds or benefits dispensed by politicians in order to gain favour with patrons or constituents.”
Rush Limbaugh inflated the latest balloon at the pork party by coining porkulus—a one-word criticism that seems to have been born in a January 23rd rant that discussed President Obama’s stimulus plan: “…this massive porkulus—it’s not a stimulus, it’s a porkulus—this porkulus spending extravaganza has been flatly rejected by the Office of Management and Budget and Wall Street.”
Columnists with more finely honed pork-dar than I will have to determine whether the stimulus bill is a true pork-fest or not. I only care about words, and whether you think Limbaugh is a fear-mongering blowhard or just a long-winded slimeball, porkulus is creative and clever enough to have a shot at succeeding, I reckon. Since its hogwashy birth, porkulus has turned up in dozens of headlines, articles, and blogs, with Seattle Weekly winning the alliteration medal of honor for “Protesting the Porkulus Package Postmortem.” There’s even a website carrying the pork torch—www.porkulus.org—and I do admire their image of a lipsticky pig, a nifty visual marriage of the two most recently prominent hog-happy idioms.
Just as Wilbur preceded bacon, pork came before porkulus, and our obese friend the OED tells us that in the 1870s pork barrel first got metaphorical, meaning “a supply of money; a 
source of rich pickings, the source of one’s livelihood.” Eventually, pork stretched its chops wide enough to include the political meaning that dominates discourse today, and over time, pork has also been used as a verb. This 1987 OED quote tells a timeless tale of craptastic public servants: “I don’t blame people for porking if there’s an opportunity to pork.”
One reason for the appeal of pork in politics probably has to do with the earthy, muddy, punchy, guttural flavor of the word, which has inspired plenty of other meanings besides the political and food-related senses, which are the mere tip of the swine-berg. Porker used to be a slang term for a sword, while a pork sword is a penis, and a pork-knocker is a freelance miner (because the gold or diamonds they would find could put pork on their table). Cincinnati is nicknamed Porkopolis for its previous pork-packing prominence, and a raven’s call has been represented as pork-porking, which implies nothing about this black bird’s legislative proclivities or evolutionary heritage.
Will porkulus join these terms in the OED or other dictionaries? Grant Barrett—editor of Hatchet Jobs and Hardball: The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang and Double-tongued Dictionary—says, “…porkulus really is a delicious little coinage. It’s fun to say, it makes you think of ridiculous, too, and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. But the odds are still against it succeeding. If you look at any of the one-sided glossaries of political terms, especially those created after the fiasco of the 2000 election, you’ll find that most of them are nonce or dead. Words are like legislation: unless they get bipartisan support, they’re unlikely to succeed.”
In any case—and since I am a great humanitarian, always striving to make the world a better place—I’d like to see the concept of 
political pork squeal and wallow in other mud puddles of language. It’s so satisfying and cocoa-warming for politicians and pundits to cry “Pork!” that the rest of us ought to get in on the act, finding self-serving slop in non-legislative places.
I look forward to the day when one engaged person says to their better half: “There’s too much pork in these wedding vows.” Perhaps a parishioner might say to a priest: “Father, that’s not a homily; it’s a pork-ily!” Maybe my editor will one day complain, “Come on, Mark, another porkfest?” (I think column pork is when I link to my other blogs, like this.)
Where else have you found enough pork to start your own government or restaurant? Let us know in comments, you pork-loving, pig-farming comment hogs.
DISCUSSION: 67 Comments
I just want to put this out there, but I was a porkaterian for the better part of a year after college, living primarily off of hot-dogs and bacon. (Believe it or not, I’m actually salivating as I write this.)
pigs eat shit… lol, good night…
Precious Pigs…
I am surprised that no one brought up (Not sure of the spelling) : triganosis – the little vermin that sometimes invade pigs and pork and make people so sick that they die after eating it. America hasn’t seen that for a while and it is mostly found in foreign pork. Should we coin a word for that like trigaporkosis when referring to someone who makes us sick? Or how about porkkitus for those who must constantly let their tempers fly “off the handle”. Oh, for the love of Pork! er… Mike what is this world coming to? Could it be more porkerific than the porkbarrel or the tranliterate prehistoric porkadon or jurassic period pigasaurus rex? If so we are going to be in for a porkrageous time in the House of Porkresenatives and the Swine-ate!
King of animals !!!
Pigs eat crap, literally. Whatever is not edible for humans, is given to pigs. Pigs also don’t sweat, which means there bodies don’t release toxins which are bad. So, who would like a piece of crap stuffed, toxin loaded meat?
Pig is dirtiest and shameless animal and the meat of pig is too rich even if the fat is taken away. The red meat of pig is still very rich.
Why do you RUSH a bad name ,he is just saying what everyone but the far left is thinking…THE TRUTH !!!!
and I always thought pork got a bad name from the cultures that dont eat it…….
Porculus sounds good to me. We have, over the decades and centuries, bent and twisted pork to fit our quest for cuisine and ridicule.I laughed at the mention of pork as a verb.Have a nice day.
Has anyone noticed the resemblence between Rush and a pig! Wonder what he looks like with lipstick on? Still a pig?….or would he look porkalicious! LOL
The obvious left wing bent of the author can not be hidden by his words. He is just another drone attempting to defend the outrageous spending of the left. This article is an attempt to discredit Rush for exposing to the public the truth about this spending bill and it’s driving him nuts that Porkulus has found it’s way into the American vernacular.
As usual if you read the remarks the politics of personal destruction is totally owned by the left. Read the article and the comments and then look at the 3rd grade name calling.
why go against the pig.. it has kept us alive for many centuries.. If you know how to prepare and cook it and buy it from a reliable source you’ll be ok.. in puerto Rico, where my family is from, we cookit in an open pit. slowly turning it ifor over 8 hrs.. thats 8 hrs turned by hand… delicious…
Actually it’s trichanosis.
I used to go hoggin on Saturday nites, you know pickup the ugliest girl….
I would like to add my addition to the “porktionary” : PIGBASTARD- You know you are a PIGBASTARD when you do not care aboutother’s feelings as you take full advantage of your “power” to dominate them. We all know them: the PIGBASTARD at the PTA meeting who doeseverything to dominate the meeting with his bad ideas, and who isunaccepting of other’s ideas. The family member who puts everyone else down and finds ways toembarrass other members at every occasion. The co-worker who takes other’s ideas and claims them as his/her own,and kisses a** at every meeting to get ahead. PIGBASTARD is a very descriptive word.
the simple truth is that pork can cause disease if not properly cooked. In the day when bacteria, germs, viruses, and parasites weren’t known about people got sick and died from eating improperly cooked pork so religious leaders at the time declared it unclean and forbade their people to eat it. Modern technology has helped prevent the diseases associated with undercooked pork, but the danger is still present. Yet the religious taboos still remain. As far as Pork in politics; isn’t that what people elect their congressmen to do? To bring home federal money back to the states and the community? I sure the vineyard owners in central New York don’t view the federal funding to study better grape growing technology as pork, just one example of tens of thousands. I don’t necessarily agree that it’s right, just offering a different way of thinking. Ultimately federal funding is only pork if it doesn’t benefit you, your family, or your job.
There’s a lot of mistakes in the world, But bacon is not one of them.
seven day’s don’t eat pork some people say spear ribs is not pork.BUT I LOVE PORK
I was raised on a farm. Chickens are by far more filthy than pigs.
Pigs seem smarter than people.
One part of a sentence in this article really jumped out at me, “whether you think Limbaugh is a fear-mongering blowhard or just a long-winded slimeball”.Are these our only two choices Mark? How gracious of you to allow us the freedom of thought to choose between your two options. Some of us think that Rush is one of the few voices in the media today that speak the hard truths and is able to wade through the deluge of liberal crap that pours out daily from the mass media.
the trichina worm which lives in the ground comes up to drink the pigs blood when the pig is butchered in the pen if the other pigs are then allowed to drink the blood as they will they injest the worms which will live unaffected in their bodies if this is allowed to happen and their meat is not cooked sufficiently to kill the worm then consumed by people trichinosous will result, the us banned butchering in pens long ago and i have personally ate rare pork on a regular basis for many years without getting trichinosis, and whoever thinks pigs will eat anything hasn’t observed them, they will never eat anything that will harm them they will eat things if allowed that will taint the taste of their meat however, i hope this clears up some confusion and by the way a pig will never give away your hard earned money.
It’s trichinosis