Swine

[Gość: peasant]

What is the different between "swine" and "pig" ??? When do we use
swine and when pig?

[piesior666]

Swinie-to,w systematyce rodzina.Pig,to odpowiednik naszej trzody
chlewnej,czyli swini chodowlanej.Chyba,ze mam grype :-)

[Gość: Steve]

Always use 'pig' in British English unless you hear swine used by others. For
the four legged animals, 'Swine' is described in dictionaries as old-use, formal
and technical eg 'swine fever', 'swineherd'. Even boar are referred to as wild pigs.

There is more flexibility for two legged animals, although swine tends to be
lighter and may even be humorous. Police are always 'pigs' and Germans 'swine',
however.

[seth.destructor]

And who is "swain"?:>

[Gość: Steve]

In this context, a 'swain' was once a herder of animals (sheep, cows,etc), but
tended to become just a shepherd, or so the dictionary tells me. I would say it
isn't used nowadays, but that may just be city vocabulary. As a derogatory term,
it might have described someone as a rural worker, similar to 'rustic.

However, I also remember seeing it used with its earlier meaning of a servant eg
'the lord's swain', but this may be from literature realting to much the early
English or pre-English period.

Coxswain (the guy who steers the boat) is a current related usage. It is
pronounced something like 'cocks on', however.

In folk songs, at least, it also means boyfriend. Folk songs being what they
are, someone is going to die because of this relationship, but I that isn't part
of the meaning.

[funkenschlag]

It's same with "raven" and "crow".

[Gość: Steve]

Certainly, use 'crow' instead of 'raven'. It is correct English since they are
all members of the crow family. However, even though I lived in an urban area, I
always thought of crows, rooks and ravens as being different. I therefore think
of the large black birds that are flying around the Polish countryside where I
live at the moment as "crows, or whatever they are". However, I have no idea
what the difference in looks is between them.

The raven has a 'special' status because of the myth of the Tower of London -
"The King ordered their destruction only to be told that if the ravens left the
Tower, the White Tower would fall and a great disaster befall the Kingdom." (A
1969 song by the poetry band, The Liverpool Scene also used the raven as a sign
for middle class snobbery, but you may never come across anyone else who knows
of this.) If the legend is no longer part of the absorbed tradition of the
younger generations (quite likely), crow may have taken over completely in
general (urban?) language without any hesitation or likelihood of correction.

[viking2]

Gość portalu: Steve napisał(a):

> Certainly, use 'crow' instead of 'raven'.

With one exception, if I may.
When you're talking about a dark-haired woman in a complimentary style, you'd
describe her as "a raven-haired beauty", never as "a crow-haired beauty"...

Raven vs. crow

[seth.destructor]

But Wikipedia says, that they are different birds: crow - wrona,
rook - gawron and raven - kruk.

[Gość: Steve]

From the English and Polish Wikipedia descriptions, 'wrona' is not 'crow', but 'hooded crow'. The 'carrion crow' in England is the Polish 'czarnowron'. My personal understanding of 'crow' may have related to these.

However, in English Wikipedia, the whole family (rodzaj) corvus are crows, which includes crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws and even jays (sójka). The last surprised me. I would never call them crows, which I think of as being generally black, but I would say 'member of the crow family'.

In the US, crows are just American Crows (wrona amerykańska), since that is normally all they have.