The phrase “sweating like a pig” comes from the cooling process of iron “sows” and “piglets” during smelting. Actual pigs don’t sweat much and need water and mud to cool down. Cast iron was produced in China before the West. There are other pig-related idioms in English.
The phrase “sweating like a pig” actually has nothing to do with the animal you might find on a farm. Instead, it refers to iron “sows” and “piglets” produced during the smelting of pig iron. In traditional iron smelting, liquid iron is poured into a mold in the shape of one long line with many smaller lines branching off at right angles. It looks similar to piglets feeding from their mother, hence these chunks came to be known as pigs. After the pigs are poured into the sand, they cool down, causing the surrounding air to reach its dew point and turn into moisture on the pigs, as if they were sweating. When the pig is sweating, it’s cool enough to move.
Learn more about pigs and iron smelting:
The animal type of pig actually can’t sweat very well. They have only a few sweat glands – compared to more than 2 million in humans – and the sweat glands that pigs have don’t work very well. To keep cool, the pigs have to cover themselves with water and mud.
Cast iron was produced at least as long ago as the Zhou dynasty in China, in the eighth century BC, hundreds of years before the process for making cast iron was discovered in the West.
There are many other idioms related to pigs in English, including “when pigs fly”, “eat like a pig”, “a pig in a poke”, “pig out” and “make a silk bag out of pigs”. ‘ear of a sow’. “
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