hedgehog
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈhɛd͡ʒ.hɒɡ/
ipa: /ˈhɛd͡ʒ.hɔɡ/
Forms: form: hedgehogs
Etymology: From Middle English heyghoge; equivalent to hedge + hog. Eclipsed non-native Middle English yrchoun, irchoun (“hedgehog”), from Old French hirchoun, herichon (“hedgehog”); and displaced earlier Middle English il, from Old English īl, iġil (“hedgehog”).
In the philosophical sense, from the 1953 essay The Hedgehog and the Fox by Isaiah Berlin.
Senses: examples: text: [L]ike Hedg-hogs vvhich / Lye tumbling in my bare-foote vvay, and mount / Their pricks at my foot-fall: ſometime am I / All vvound vvith Adders, vvho vvith clouen tongues / Doe hiſſe me into madneſſe: […]
ref: 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 9, column 1:
text: Among the Romans the genital organ of the hedgehog and the wolf were among the ingredients used in aphrodisiac concoctions.
ref: 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 152:
glosses: A small mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, characterized by their spiny back and often by the habit of rolling up into a ball when attacked, native to Afro-Eurasia.
glosses: Any of several spiny mammals, such as the porcupine, that are similar to the hedgehog.
examples: text: Ukrainian civilians have been DIY-ing hedgehogs, welding two bars or beams at an angle to make a cross and then adding a third to ensure it holds its shape even if it's knocked over.
ref: 2022 March 21, Bill Chappell, “SWIFT, hedgehog, MiG: Here's a guide to the terms of war in Ukraine”, in SPECIAL SERIES: Ukraine invasion — explained, NPR, retrieved 21 Mar 2022:
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: Ellipsis of Czech hedgehog (“an antitank obstacle constructed from three steel rails”).
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: A spigot mortar-type of depth charge weapon from World War II that simultaneously fires a number of explosives into the water to create a pattern of underwater explosions intended to attack submerged submarines.
examples: text: 2005, Paul Mitchell, The Favourite, Frank Moorhouse, The Best Australian Stories 2005, page 145,
There are hedgehogs with sultanas as well as breadcrumbs, carrot cakes and fruitcakes and banana walnut loaves.
text: I am so flustered that I order a vanilla slice instead of hedgehog.
ref: 2008, Lili Wilkinson, The Not Quite Perfect Boyfriend, unnumbered page:
text: His wife had made a hedgehog cake and he offered some but Murphy refused – his mouth was so dry with terror he couldn′t swallow.
ref: 2009, Adam Shand, The Skull: Informers, Hit Men and Australia's Toughest Cop, page 199:
glosses: A type of chocolate cake (or slice), somewhat similar to an American brownie.
examples: text: The first machines merely loosened, but did not raise the stuff, a scouring being afterwards effected by means of sluices. These machines consisted of large bars or prongs placed vertically in a frame, and being fastened to a barge placed in the line of the sluices, the whole was inpelled forward by the current, thereby scouring the bed. Such a machine, called a hedgehog, is still used in Lincolnshire.
ref: 1868, “Dredging”, in Charles Tomlinson, editor, Cyclopædia of Useful Arts, Mechanical and Chemical, Manufactures, Mining, and Engineering, volume 1, page 520:
glosses: A form of dredging machine.
glosses: Certain flowering plants with parts resembling a member of family Erinaceidae
Medicago intertexta, the pods of which are armed with short spines.
glosses: Certain flowering plants with parts resembling a member of family Erinaceidae
Retzia capensis of South Africa.
examples: text: Hedgehogs fruit from autumn until late spring. Many consumers are still unfamiliar with hedgehogs, and they have a relatively small commercial trade.
ref: 1998, Randy Molina, David Pilz, Managing Forest Ecosystems to Conserve Fungus Diversity and Sustain Wild Mushroom Harvests:
synonyms: sweet tooth
wood hedgehog
glosses: The edible fungus Hydnum repandum.
glosses: A kind of electrical transformer with open magnetic circuit, the ends of the iron wire core being turned outward and presenting a bristling appearance.
glosses: A way of serving food at a party, consisting of a half melon or potato etc. with individual cocktail sticks of cheese and pineapple stuck into it.
qualifier: differential geometry
glosses: A type of plane curve; see Hedgehog (geometry).
examples: text: Austin was patiently and painstakingly concerned with truth within limitations. He was a hedgehog, not a fox.
ref: 1970, The Month:
text: Dewey was a hedgehog rather than a fox; he spent his life trying to articulate and restate a single vision, and in the writings of his third decade he already exhibits the tension I have claimed to find in the later writings.
ref: 1992, J. E. Tiles, Jim E. Tiles, John Dewey, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 220:
topics: human-sciences
philosophy
sciences
antonyms: fox
glosses: Someone who has one big overarching personal philosophy or worldview.
Synonyms: sense: mammal with spines
word: urchin
sense: mammal with spines
word: furze-pig
sense: mammal with spines
word: fuzz-pig
sense: mammal with spines
word: hedgepig
sense: mammal with spines
word: hedgy-boar
sense: mammal with spines
word: prickly-pig
sense: mammal with spines
word: Erinaceus europaeus
sense: Medicago intertexta
word: Calvary clover
sense: Medicago intertexta
word: Calvary medick
sense: Medicago intertexta
word: hedgehog medick
Hyponyms: english: baby hedgehog
translation: baby hedgehog
word: hoglet
Coordinate terms: sense: mammal with spines
word: gymnure
Derived terms: taxonomic: Erinaceus amurensis
word: Amur hedgehog
taxonomic: Paraechinus nudiventris
word: bare-bellied hedgehog
taxonomic: Paraechinus hypomelas
word: Brandt's hedgehog
word: Czech hedgehog
taxonomic: Mesechinus dauuricus
word: Daurian hedgehog
taxonomic: Paraechinus aethiopicus
word: desert hedgehog
taxonomic: Erinaceus europaeus
word: European hedgehog
taxonomic: Atelerix albiventris
word: four-toed hedgehog
word: hairy hedgehog
word: hedgehog cactus
word: hedgehoggy
word: hedgehogless
word: hedgehoglike
taxonomic: Hericium erinaceus
word: hedgehog mushroom
word: hedgehog plant
word: hedgehog seahorse
word: hedgehog signalling pathway
word: hedgehog slice
word: hedgehog tenrec
word: hedgehog thistle
taxonomic: Mesechinus hughi
word: Hugh's hedgehog
taxonomic: Paraechinus micropus
word: Indian hedgehog
taxonomic: Hemiechinus collaris
word: Indian long-eared hedgehog
taxonomic: Hemiechinus auritus
word: long-eared hedgehog
taxonomic: Atelerix algirus
word: North African hedgehog
taxonomic: Erinaceus roumanicus
word: northern white-breasted hedgehog
word: sea hedgehog
taxonomic: Atelerix sclateri
word: Somali hedgehog
word: sonic hedgehog
taxonomic: Atelerix frontalis
word: Southern African hedgehog
taxonomic: Erinaceus concolor
word: southern white-breasted hedgehog
taxonomic: Echinocereus dasyacanthus
word: spiny hedgehog
word: wobbly hedgehog syndrome