What Does “A Parcel of Hogs” Mean?
“Parcel” belongs to the same family of old, general-purpose English collective nouns covered elsewhere on this site for deer and sheep, treating a group of animals somewhat like a bundled lot rather than describing any specific hog behavior. Its use here follows that same broad historical pattern rather than pointing to anything genuinely hog-specific.
A clear, documented account of exactly why “parcel” attached itself to hogs in particular isn’t something we could confirm with confidence, and as with its use elsewhere on this site, we’d rather note honestly that many older English collective nouns were distributed fairly loosely across multiple livestock species during a period when compiling long, varied word lists seems to have been something of a popular pastime in its own right.
Example: “The old market ledger recorded a parcel of hogs sold at auction that autumn.”
Other Collective Nouns for Hogs
A group of hogs goes by more than one name. You might also hear:
Related: Collective Nouns for Mammals