porpentine
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Alteration of porcupine.
Noun
porpentine (plural porpentines)
- (archaic) Porcupine.
- 1594, Christopher Marlowe, Edward II, London: William Jones,[1]
- […] these wordes of his moue me as much,
- As if a Goose should play the Porpintine,
- And dart her plumes, thinking to pierce my brest,
- c. 1600, W. Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1, Scene V:
- “GHOST: I could a tale unfold whose lightest word / Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, / Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, / Thy knotted and combined locks to part / And each particular hair to stand on end, / Like quills upon the fretful porpentine
- 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter XI:
- Odd that he [Hamlet's ghost] should have said porpentine when he meant porcupine. Slip of the tongue, no doubt, as so often happens with ghosts.
- 1594, Christopher Marlowe, Edward II, London: William Jones,[1]