subs. (old).—1. A fat woman; hence (2) = a general term of abuse: cf. BITCH. SOW-CHILD = a girl baby (B. E. and GROSE); SOW’S BABY = a sucking pig.
1702. WARD, Works, i. 5, 27. She looks … like a SOW in petticoats.
1725. N. BAILEY, trans. The Colloquies of Erasmus, ‘The Epithalamium of Petrus Ægidius.’ The Wife [has been called] SOW, Fool, dirty Drab.
PHRASES and PROVERBS. TO GREASE A FAT SOW ON THE ARSE = to be insensible to kindness; TO COME SAILING IN A SOW’S EAR (RAY); TO GET THE RIGHT (or WRONG) SOW BY THE EAR = to make a right (or wrong) conclusion (B. E. and GROSE); ‘You cannot make a silk-purse of a SOW’S EAR = a retort on the impossible’ (RAY): cf. ‘You cannot make a horn of a pig’s tail’ and ‘An ass’s tail will not make a sieve.’ See DAVID’S SOW; HEMPSEED; SADDLE; WILD OATS.
1598. JONSON, Every Man in his Humour, ii. 1. He has THE WRONG SOW BY THE EAR, i’ faith; and claps his dish at the wrong man’s door.
1605. CHAPMAN and JONSON, Eastward Ho, ii. 1. YOU HAVE THE SOW BY THE RIGHT EAR, sir.
1664. BUTLER, Hudibras, II. iii. 580. You have a WRONG SOW BY THE EAR.
d. 1731. WARD, Merry Observations upon Every Month, June. Those that happen to HAVE THE WRONG SOW BY THE EAR will be very apt to curse the shortness of the Vacation.
1771. SMOLLETT, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker [SAINTSBURY (1900), i. 81]. You know, my dear friend, how natural it is for us Irishmen to blunder, and TO TAKE THE WRONG SOW BY THE EAR.
1833. MARRYAT, Peter Simple, I. xii. The man was very well, but having been brought up in a collier, he could not be expected to be very refined; in fact, he observed, pulling up his shirt collar—‘it was IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE A SILK PURSE OUT OF A SOW’S EAR.’
