In a Pig's Eye

Posted by ESC on December 31, 2000

In Reply to: In a Pig's Eye posted by ESC on December 31, 2000

: : : Any Takers

: : I only know 'pigs ear' in Britain. It's rhyming slang for 'beer'

: In a pig's eye. I've heard it. It must be an Americanism. It means you doubt and/or aren't accepting a statement someone has made. "I can make it through the day without coffee." "In a pig's eye."

IN A PIG'S EYE - "Never, highly unlikely. Whether the originator of the saying meant that a poor idea was something to put in a pig's eye or that it would look bad to a pig's eye is a matter of speculation. As an expression of scorn the expression was picked up in 1872 by Petroleum V. Nasby (David Locke) in one of his satirical newspaper columns: 'A poetical cotashun.which.wuz, -- 'Kum wun, kim all, this rock shel fly From its firm base - in a pig's eye.'" From The Dictionary of Cliches by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985).