“most” would be an exaggeration, but many are. Other animals commonly used in placeholder names are also horse, chicken and lion.
Pig was just the most common meat animal, so any unknown animal that you’d eat would he called an xyz pig. Apple was also used like this for all kinds of fruits and vegetables:
IIRC, most animal names in German end up being some kind of dog or some kind of pig.
“most” would be an exaggeration, but many are. Other animals commonly used in placeholder names are also horse, chicken and lion.
Pig was just the most common meat animal, so any unknown animal that you’d eat would he called an xyz pig. Apple was also used like this for all kinds of fruits and vegetables:
orange = Chinese apple
tomato = golden apple (?)
pomegranate = granate apple
potato = earth apple
jimsonweed = thorn apple
And so on