French culinary expression: COPAINS COMME COCHONS
Do the sweet bonds of friendship therefore figure among the many qualities, albeit somewhat polarized, commonly recognized in pigs (cf. the inescapable “in the pig, everything is good”)?
Some do not doubt it for a second and give the phrase the meaning of an unrestrained relationship, where the buddies in question demonstrate an excessive lack of embarrassment and familiarity with each other, interpretation contaminated, no doubt, by the popular saying "we didn't keep the pigs together".
Others prefer to see in this expression, which has existed since the 16th century in the form "comrades as pigs", an old "soçon", "sochon" coming from the Latin socius, partner, friend, who soon no longer being understood, would have been retouched in "pig".
