pig iron

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

pig iron (usually uncountable, plural pig irons)

1. A type of crude, brittle iron shaped like a block, unsuitable for working but suitable for casting, commonly used as an industrial raw material.

   Synonym: crude iron

   • 1945 January and February, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—III”, in Railway Magazine, page 14:

     We spent a lot of time up on the staging of the great furnaces, trying to pick up the tricks of the trade from the taciturn furnacemen who sat around placidly smoking, or chewing twist, and occasionally throwing in more pig iron to the molten white-hot metal.

References

• “pig iron”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.