Why Germans 'have pig' when there's not a pig in sight

When people are undeservedly lucky, Germans say: "Schwein gehabt!" — they "have pig!" Traditionally, the loser of a shooting contest at a marksmen's festival would win a consolation prize in the form of a live piglet.

Time to celebrate a lucky win in the lottery, college graduation or a new job? Some people will go wild and "die Sau rauslassen" — let out the sow. One of various legends has it that in the Middle Ages, the "Sau" was the highest card in a popular card game.

How disappointing — you're expecting all of your friends to be at the party, but "kein Schwein/keine Sau war da" literally, "no pig/sow was there." No pig stands for not a soul, absolutely nobody, and of course refers to people, not hogs. In other words, all alone — kind of like Chancellor Angela Merkel in this photo taken at the Bundestag.

In the digital age, handwritten papers, letters and notes are becoming fewer and far between. Without regular practice, penmanship suffers, and many people will find they have what Germans call a "Sauklaue" ("a sow's claw"), meaning terribly sloppy and illegible handwriting.

"I think my pig is whistling" — the common phrase "Ich glaub ' mein Schwein pfeift" has next to nothing to do with noisy swine, who actually squeal and grunt, but don't whistle. It means something outrageous or extraordinary has happened.

Oddly enough, some adjectives are reinforced with the added prefix "Sau" (sow). "Saukalt" is freezing cold, "saustark" means incredibly strong and "saugut" is unbelievably good.

Pigs are not picky eaters — they are omnivores and will eat pretty much anything. Hog swill/pig swill is a term for kitchen leftovers fed to pigs, a slimy looking mess of solids and liquids. "Schweinefrass" refers to a particularly unappetizing meal — hog grub, as it were.