Meaning

noun relatively large rodents with sharp erectile bristles mingled with the fur

noun small nocturnal Old World mammal covered with both hair and protective spines

originFrom Middle English heyghoge; equivalent to hedge + hog. Eclipsed non-native Middle English yrchoun, irchoun (“hedgehog”), from Old French hirchoun, herichon (“hedgehog”); and displaced earlier Middle English il, from Old English īl, iġil (“hedgehog”). In the philosophical sense, from the 1953 essay The Hedgehog and the Fox by Isaiah Berlin. Compare typologically Korean 고슴도치 (goseumdochi) (<<+…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0