Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *perḱ-
Proto-Indo-European *-os
Proto-Indo-European *pórḱos
Proto-Italic *porkos
Latin porcus
Old French porcbor.
Middle English pork
English pork
English -y
English porky
From pork + -y.
Meanings
Resembling or characteristic of pork.
It was tender and delicious, with a kind of porky taste you didn't often get from supermarket meats. 2010, Victor J. Banis, The Blood of Love, page 113:
(slang) Rather fat; chubby.
In front of Lister a small red-haired man, with a porky roll of flesh above his towel-top, was examining a line of girls. 1989, Grant Naylor, Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers:
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *perḱ-
Proto-Indo-European *-os
Proto-Indo-European *pórḱos
Proto-Italic *porkos
Latin porcus
Old French porcbor.
Middle English pork
English pork
English -y
English porky
From pork + -y.
Meanings
(Multicultural-London-English, form-of, singulative, slang) singulative of pork (“law enforcement”)
When she turned up at the lab, she gave us a sprawling prepared presentation relying heavily on anecdotal evidence, where it wasn't relying on skewed statistics, unfounded claims and outright porkies. 2007, Christopher Brookmyre, Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks, →ISBN, page 203:
(Cockney, in-plural, slang) An eye.
Fucked if I know, I never even clapped my little porkies on him before. 2015, Jeremy Cameron, Brown Bred in Wengen:
He snarled, and the porky looked to be running away but swung his tail and put about twenty-five quills in the side of our dog’s face. 2021, Ron Paliskis, “The Beasts at the lake”, in Ron: A Coke Alley Boy, Pittsburgh, Pa.: Dorrance Publishing Co, →ISBN, section “Porcupines”, page 59:
Although porcupines lack the ability to throw their quills, they do have the capacity to raise and lower them at will. When threatened, a porky elevates its quills so that it bristles like some sort of mammalian cactus with giant spines. 2000, Warner Shedd, “A “Pig,” Perhaps, but Not a Hog: The Porcupine”, in Owls Aren’t Wise & Bats Aren’t Blind: A Naturalist Debunks Our Favorite Fallacies About Wildlife, New York, N.Y.: Three Rivers Press, page 52:
The irate Ranger killed thirteen porcupines chewing away on his front porch, and still they came, the salt proving an irresistible lure. In this same district a porky pulled the most impudent stunt of all. 1929, Forest and Stream, page 58: