bartholomew pig
Preserved but no longer current.
A very fat person. At Bartholomew Fair one of the chief attractions used to be a pig, roasted whole, and sold piping hot. Falstaff calls himself— A little tidy Bartholomew boar-pig.— 2 Henry IV, ii, 4.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “bartholomew pig” mean?
A very fat person. At Bartholomew Fair one of the chief attractions used to be a pig, roasted whole, and sold piping hot. Falstaff calls himself— A little tidy Bartholomew boar-pig.— 2 Henry IV, ii, 4.
Is “bartholomew pig” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.