Meaning & Analysis
A piglet that comes from your own sow; in other words, something that originates from your own resources, ideas, or actions.
Insights
Returning One’s Own
Refers to giving back to someone what already belongs to them, or presenting their own ideas, words, or resources as if they were new or a favor.
Circular Favor or Transaction
Highlights situations where help or benefit appears to be given, but in reality, nothing new is provided—it is simply a portion of what the recipient already possesses.
Folk Wisdom on Reciprocity
The proverb draws on the realities of agrarian life, where a sow’s offspring obviously belong to the owner. Its use in figurative language extends to legal, financial, and rhetorical contexts—underscoring an awareness of genuine versus illusory giving.
International Parallels
Variants such as 'an egg of my own hen' (Italian) or the Latin 'Ex tua officina venit' reveal that this principle—receiving what is already one’s own—is widely recognized in European cultures.
Subtle Satire
The proverb can serve as a gentle rebuke to those who feign generosity or originality, exposing the hollow nature of such acts.
Rhetorical Devices
Metaphor
The piglet and sow stand in for broader relationships between source and offspring, giver and recipient, original and derivative.
Irony
The phrase is often used ironically, to point out the self-serving or circular nature of the 'gift' or favor.
Colloquialism
The rural, concrete imagery makes the proverb accessible, vivid, and memorable.
Transcription
Quotations
That is euyn a pyg of our own Sow.
(myne owne sowe).
Syr ye gyue me a pyg, of myne owne sowe.
The last, because it is knowen too be a Pig of myne owne Sowe, I will speake the lesse of it.
Bestowing upon myselfe a misshapin ill-favorid freshe copy of my precious poems, as it were, a pigg of myne owne sowe.
Pigs of your own Sow.
Tis a pig of your owne sow.
To giue one a pig of his owne sow.
To affoord him helpe out of his owne meanes.
Ex tua officina venit.
You give me a Pigg of my own Sow.
See, here's an egge of my own hen.
The English say, a pig of my own sow.
(my own sow).
(‘Tis a pig of).
‘Tis a pig of your own sow, your own self sold it.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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