High on the hog

Meaning

Affluent and luxurious.

Origin

The source of this phrase is often said to be the fact that the best cuts of meat on a pig come from the upper loins and leg and that the wealthy ate cuts from 'high on the hog' and the paupers ate belly pork and trotters. The imagery of lords at Olde Englyshe mediaeval banquets feasting on fine meats is easy to bring to mind. It may well be that, as far as the source of this expression goes, our imagination needs to leap forward a few centuries.

None of the variants of the phrase - Living (or eating) high on (or off) the hog are to be found in any of Chaucer and Shakespeare and their contemporaries. In fact, these aren't found in print in any form until the 20th century, and in the USA rather than England.

High has been in used in the UK with the meaning impressive; superlative; attractive since the 17th century and in the USA since the early 19th century. For example, this from Samuel Pepys Diary or, as he liked to call it, Samuel Pepys' Memoirs - Comprising his Diary, from the entry for 29th July 1667:

"Where it seems people do drink high."

A US citation is George G. Foster's New York in Slices, 1848:

"I say Jim! ain't this high?"

The idea that 'living high on the hog' initially meant 'living high', i.e. well and eating pork, rather than 'eating pork from high on the pig', seems to be dealt a blow by the following citation. This is the earliest printed form of the phrase that I have come across - from the New York Times, Mar 4, 1920:

Southern laborers who are "eating too high up on the hog" (pork chops and ham) and American housewives who "eat too far back on the beef" (porterhouse and round steak) are to blame for the continued high cost of living, the American Institute of Meat Packers announced today.

'High off the hog' has a similar pedigree, i.e. mid 20th century USA. For example, the San Francisco paper the Call-Bulletin, May 1946:

I have to do my shopping in the black market because we can't eat as high off the hog as Roosevelt and Ickes and Joe Davis and all those millionaire friends of the common man.

The location of the cuts of prime pork may well have been the origin of 'high on the hog'. A question remains though, why, when people had eaten pork for centuries and the back and haunch had always provided the best meat, did the phrase not originate before the 20th century?