porcupine

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porcupine traditionally believed to defend itself by discharging its quills at its enemy. The porcupine was the personal badge of Louis XII, king of France (1462–1515).

Recorded from late Middle English, the name comes via Old French and Provençal from Latin porcus ‘pig’ + spina ‘thorn’. An early variant, porpentine, is now likely to be known from its use by Shakespeare, as in Hamlet.

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