I selected this expression to post today because I posted both a review and blog about the book “Angry Pigs Organized Against Gerbils: The Farmer Island War.” Therefore, I am going whole hog on the web site today (and I probably should apologize).

I am often surprised about the origin of an expression, and that is the case with this one. I had believed that the wikianswers explanation was the obvious source. That site says that it originated from the Southern barbecue process of cooking and serving a whole hog, and that it is easy to see how going whole hog means going all the way. However, The Phrase Finder explains that the expression actually came from “…a rather obscure satirical work by…William Cowper.” The poem “…teases Muslims over the supposed ambiguity of restrictions against eating pork…” The gist is that each part of a hog is tested to learn which part wasn’t permissible to eat until the whole hog is eaten. (As an aside, a whole hog can easily feed fifty people.)