My Brother Of ‘ine

(My brother and I get out of a movie around 1:30 in the morning. We’re both starving and exhausted, so we decide to hit a late night drive-thru before going home and going to sleep. This is the conversation we have while waiting for food.)

Brother: “Supine means lying down, right?”

Me: “Yup.”

Brother: “Supine is lying on your back and prone is lying on your front, right?”

Me: “I’m not sure. I think they both just mean lying down.”

Brother: “Is there a word like that for standing up or sitting? Something that ends in ‘pine?’ I’m pretty sure there is.”

Me: “Not that I can think of.”

Brother: “I’ve definitely heard it before.”

Me: “Maybe, but we’d have to look it up. I can’t even begin to think.”

Brother: “Sit-pine? Stand-pine?”

Me: “Maybe it just ends in ‘ine.’ Hmm… I’ve got it! Porcine!”

Brother: “Really? What does that mean?”

Me: “Oh, I was just kidding. It’s like a pig. It’s, like, the general term for pig-ness. Like equine is for horses.”

Brother: “Oh! Maybe ‘equine’ originally meant standing up and it just got applied to horses later!”

Me: “Of course! Because horses always sleep standing up!”