… of the Week (#15):

This week – Phrase of the Week (#2):

So I thought it would be nice, for a change, to look at the origin of another well known, if somewhat socially inurned, phrase.

Pig’s Ear

To make a pig’s ear of something is to make such a mess of a project that the result is considered useless. The phrase dates back to the Middle Ages when, if a craftsman – or more often the apprentice – was to make something so badly that it could not be used, it was called a pig’s ear. During this period in British history, it was considered that the only part of a pig which was completely inedible and unusable in any way was the ear.