pigskin

Compound of pig +‎ skin. The American football is a direct descendant of the ball used in the game of rugby. The rugby ball originally was made of a pig’s bladder with a leather cover; the earliest versions of the leather exterior sometimes were made of pigskin.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɪɡˌskɪn/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

pigskin (countable and uncountable, plural pigskins)

1. The skin of a pig.
   • 2009, Zushe Yosef Blech, Kosher Food Production, page 318:

     In addition, most gelatins made today are produced from pigskins, which are not subject to this consideration.

   • 2010 February 3, Kim Severson, “For the Big Game? Why, Pigskins”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 4 February 2010:

     Adding a porky layer of fried skin not only gives heft and flavor to the snack menu, pigskin is just sort of fun to serve at football games. Pigskin is no longer a food best left to Southerners and late-night partiers.

2. Leather made from the skin of a pig.

   Synonym: hoghide

   • 2016, Robert Maddock, The 1,300 Years’ War: Volume One:

     Those killed fighting his troops would be buried in pigskins.

3. (countable, US, slang) A football.

   Synonym: gridiron football ball

   • 1998, Kenneth Judd, Numerical Methods in Economics, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 29:

     To paraphrase a renowned pigskin philosopher, speed is not everything, it is the only thing.

   • 2011, J. H. Holland, Dsi: Diddly Squat Investigation, page 35:

     “We gotta find those pigskins!” Squat insisted. “Pigskins?” Diddly asked. With obvious disdain, Squat replied, “Yeah, you know, that is what they call footballs, dummy.”

• skin

• Apple #356, The Football's Shape, http://dailyapple.blogspot.com/

• spiking