If you’re having a tough time finding something, remember that even a blind pig can find an acorn once in a while. This encouraging idiom actually comes from ancient Rome, where the concept of a blind animal turning something up lent itself to the Latin saying that a blind dove sometimes finds a pea. An 18th-century Friedrich Schiller play employed the blind-pig-and-acorn version, and the play’s translation into English and French may have brought it into modern English speech. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Even a Blind Pig”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, this is Paul Martin in Carrollton, Texas.
Hi, Paul.
Hello, Paul.
How are you doing?
Hi. I have an expression I recall from my grandfather. I’m a senior, and I moved to live with my grandparents when I was about nine years old.
And Granddad had an expression of, the old blind hog finally picked up an acorn.
And he would use this when he found something that had been exasperated about not being able to find, whether it was an implement in the garage or an answer to a thought.
It was something that had escaped him, maybe physically, and he’d suddenly found it, and this would pop out.
And where was this?
Was it also in Texas?
Yes, it was in Texas. It was in Fort Worth.
Okay.
It was interesting that he’s from that part of the country because Bill Clinton, the president, was well known for saying things like even a blind hog can find an acorn or even a blind pig can find an acorn.
He would say that if, say, he won a round of golf against somebody in a surprising way or won a card game and surprised everybody.
He’d say even a blind hog can find an acorn.
But it’s older than that, right?
I’ve never heard that.
Well, the idea of a blind animal turning up something goes all the way back to ancient Rome, if you can believe that, Paul.
Wow.
Really?
Yeah.
A hog or some other animal?
No, in ancient Rome, there was a Latin saying that indicated a blind dove or a pigeon sometimes finds a pea.
Wow, that’s amazing.
Like a little pea.
Yeah, and I know that in places like Estonia and Poland, there are versions of that as well, having to do with the blind hen finding a piece of grain.
I did know that it first appears in English in the middle of the 1800s, right?
I think it’s translated from a play by Friedrich Schiller, who was a poet and a kind of a contemporary of Goethe.
And so it showed up in French and German and English at about the same time.
I don’t know of any earlier instances in English, but it’s fairly widespread.
So it’s not localized to the American South.
It’s interesting that it goes back that far in time.
Yes, isn’t it?
At 8 to 10 years old, I had no reason to think about where to get this idea.
Right, right.
It was something that I learned from him and remembered.
And as I’ve listened to your program, I’ve thought more and more about calling and trying to learn something about it.
Well, I love that, Paul.
Well, this is the place where you can ask those questions you wish you asked your parents or your grandparents.
It really is.
It really is.
Thank you so much for calling, Paul.
I’m glad we were able to help you today.
Appreciate your help today.
Bye-bye.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
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