tantony pig

Contraction of Saint Anthony's pig in honour of St Anthony, patron saint of swineherds, frequently shown with a little pig by his side. For the phonetic evolution, compare tawdry.

tantony pig (plural tantony pigs)

1. (obsolete, slang) The favourite or smallest pig in the litter.
   • 1935, Wystan Hugh Auden, O What Is That Sound Which So Thrills The Ear:

     And to follow the delicious breeze like a tantony pig .

   • 1838, Benjamin Webster, Acting National Drama:

     I'm not going to tankety-tankety after his tail, like a Tantony pig any more.

   • 1984, Richard Fitzneale, Dialogus De Scaccario: The Course of the Exchequer and Constitutio Domus Regis (the Establishment of the Royal Household):

     This system (which had the disadvantage of discouraging good farming, since the worst animal — the 'Tantony pig' — counted for as much as the best) was only applicable when the court was in constant progress.

   • 2002, Murray J Levith, Shakespeare's Merchant and Marlowe's Other Play in The Merchant of Venice: Critical Essays, ed John Mahon, Ellen MacLeod Mahon

     A “Tantony pig” is the smallest of a litter, a detail that might recall Antonio's description of himself in Shakespeare's play as the “tainted wether of the flock".

• Anthony pig, tantony, Anthony

[Francis] Grose [et al.] (1811) “Tantony pig”, in Lexicon Balatronicum. A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence. , London: C. Chappell, , →OCLC.