The word piggy bank may be older than you think, going back to the 1400s. We will examine the definition of the word piggy bank, where it came from and some examples of its use in sentences.
A piggy bank is a small container used to save coins, often but not always shaped like a pig. Children in particular are encouraged to use piggy banks as a way to save money. The term piggy bank is also used figuratively to mean someone’s savings. Piggy bank goes back to the Middle Ages, when people kept their savings in clay jars or pots. The orange-colored clay used in most common jars or pots was called pygg. One would say he was adding money to his pygg pot. It is easy to suppose that the similarity between the words pygg and pig resulted in an industrious potter making jars meant specifically for holding one’s money in the shape of pigs, as a pun. The plural form of piggy bank is piggy banks.
Examples
Bristol City manager Lee Johnson has jokingly claimed he had to ‘raid my little girl’s piggy bank’ in order to fund the present the club have bought for Manchester United boss José Mourinho. (Sports Illustrated)
“It is outrageous that the staff of the Duquesne School District — including its former superintendent — used this district’s general fund as a piggy bank for personal no-interest loans,” DePasquale said in a statement. (The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)
An adorable bird proved to be quite the savvy saver in footage showing it collecting money from pedestrians and slotting them into its piggy bank – but not every coin made the cut. (The Daily Mail)