pig iron

English

Etymology

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

Noun

pig iron (uncountable)

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.
   • 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.

   crude iron

Translations

type of crude iron

• Bulgarian: чугун на слитъци (čugun na slitǎci)
• Catalan: lingot d'alt forn m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 生鐵／生铁 (zh) (shēngtiě)

• Esperanto: krudfero
• Finnish: takkirauta (fi)
• French: fonte brute f
• German: Roheisen (de) n
• Greek: αργός σίδηρος m (argós sídiros)
• Hindi: कच्चा लोहा m (kaccā lohā)
• Indonesian: besi gubal
• Irish: muciarann m
• Italian: ghisa grezza
• Japanese: 銑鉄 (ja) (せんてつ, sentetsu)
• Korean: 선철 (seoncheol)
• Macedonian: су́рово же́лезо n (súrovo žélezo)
• Malay: besi jongkong
• Polish: surówka (pl) f
• Portuguese: ferro-gusa m, gusa f
• Russian: переде́льный чугу́н m (peredélʹnyj čugún)
• Spanish: arrabio (es) m, hierro colado
• Swedish: tackjärn (sv) n
• Tagalog: ilik-bakal
• Welsh: haearn crai m, haearn hwch m

See also

• cast iron
• pig tin
• puddled bar

References

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