When pigs fly

What does the « When pigs fly » idiom mean?

According to Wikipedia, the idiom or phrase « when pigs fly » describes an impossibility. It means, never. It’s never going to happen. Apparently, the phrase has been used since the 1600s as a sarcasm.

Different forms exist such as ‘Pigs might fly’. It is a figure of speech that suggests complete impossibility, because flying pigs literally don’t exist(in case you were doubting it). Americans mostly use the form ‘when pigs fly’.

Where does it come from?

As for its origin, there are different hypotheses. The website Phrases says the original version of ‘pigs might fly’ was ‘pigs fly with their tails forward’ and was found in a list of proverbs in the 1616 edition of John Withals’s English-Latin dictionary – A Shorte Dictionarie for Yonge Begynners:

« Pigs fly in the ayre with their tayles forward.« 

This form of the expression was in use for 200 years as a sarcasm to any overly optimistic prediction made by the gullible.

Why pigs? Other animals were used, but we went on with pigs, an animal that is physically unsuited to fly (because heavy).

Examples to use this idiom…

• When will I go to work in the family business? When pigs fly, that’s when.
• Can you have a pet gerbil? Not until pigs fly.
• Pigs will fly before I’ll ever try sushi again. Yuck!
• When will I buy you yet another video game? When pigs sprout wings and fly.

You can also say: to not hold your breath, to catch lightning in a bottle, to find needle in a haystack, not in a million years, when salt blossoms.

Translation into French: Quand les poules auront des dents (When chicks/hens have teeth)

More on YouTube…

You can also find the video by clicking here.