hoggan

See also: Hoggan

English

Alternative forms

• hoggen

Etymology

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.

Noun

hoggan (plural hoggans)

1. (dialectal, chiefly Cornwall) A pork pasty.
   • 1852, Chambers's Repository of Instructing and Amusing Tracts:

     Some of the mine-owners provide no facilities whatever for the children to rewarm their pasties and hoggans  […]

   • 1866, Higham, Dial., 14:

     Tom Trevarton had a piece of hoggan weth un.

   • 1948, Norman Wymer, The Southern Shires, page 46:

     And 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.

   • 2004, Lynne Mayers, Balmaidens:

     […] those who had to eat cold hoggans or pasties.

   • 2017, Kathleen Ernst, Mining for Justice, Llewellyn Worldwide, →ISBN:

     “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."

Further reading

• Edward Gepp (1923) An Essex Dialect Dictionary, page 57:

  HAGGEN-BAG, HAGNY-BAG : a pair of bags arranged to hang over the shoulders, in front and behind, for provisions, etc. Hoggen is a Cornish word for a pork pasty, or flat cake, and hoggan-bag is a miner's provison bag. From old Cornish hogen, a pork pasty, from hoch, a pig. This from E.D.D., which gives the word for Cornwall only. It is strange that it should be used with us, it is, commonly.

Cornish

Noun

hoggan f

1. Alternative form of hogen

Related terms

• hoggan-bag