hedgehog (English)
Where does "hedgehog" come from?
The English noun hedgehog descends from the Middle English form 'heyghoge'[1]. This term eclipsed non-native Middle English 'yrchoun', which came from Old French 'hirchoun' or 'herichon', and also displaced the earlier Middle English form 'il' that originated from Old English 'īl' or 'iġil'[1]. Later, the philosophical sense of the word emerged from the 1953 essay The Hedgehog and the Fox written by Isaiah Berlin[1].
Full etymology tree
- hedgehog (English), '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.'
- inherited heyghoge (Middle English)
Descendants and derived words
- Chinese hedgehog (English)
- Czech hedgehog (English)
- European hedgehog (English)
- hairy hedgehog (English)
- hedgehog cactus (English)
- hedgehoggy (English)
- hedgehog highway (English)
- hedgehogless (English)
- hedgehoglike (English)
- hedgehog plant (English)
- hedgehog seahorse (English)
- hedgehog signalling pathway (English)
Related words
Sources
Updated October 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris