Words: sow, lug and mow

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi,

Could you please tell me what the meaning is of the following words?

  1. Does ‘sow’ mean a she-hog and ‘lug’ a fool? Then what does the sentence mean?

  2. What does 'mow mean here?

Thank you!

Haihao

2

.
Has the wrong sow by the lug – I had always read this as meaning that a piglet is suckling at the teat (= lug-- though I find no such dictionary definition) of a sow not its mother (which would get some baby animals in trouble, though I don’t know about pigs specifically). This metaphor is not a Joyce creation; it has existed since at least 1782. From Old Bailey proceedings:

[i]610. JAMES BULL was indicted for stealing on the 21st of July, one linen handkerchief, value 1 s. the goods of Robert Gall .

ROBERT GALL sworn.

I catched the prisoner’s hand in my right hand pocket with my handkerchief on the 21st of July, another fellow came up, and said, damn your eyes, What do you mean to attack a seamen? and added blast your eyes, and damn your eyes, and so forth, that is their language, not mine, says I, you are a thief, and a villain, my man, and you have got the wrong sow by the lug, you shall serve his Majesty; Sir, says the prisoner, I have lost the first joint of my right thumb: I brought him to the compter.

GUILTY. Transported to America for seven years. Tried by the London Jury, before Mr. RECORDER[/i].

A mow is ‘a wry or derisive grimace’. I guess it derives from French ‘moue’, which has the same meaning (and is also in the English dictionary).
.