Why do we speak of trying to egg on a person, meaning to urge them to do something? Martha explains that the egg in this case has nothing to do with chickens. This kind of “egg” is derives from an old root that means to “urge on with a sharp object.” It’s a linguistic relative of the word “edge.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Egg On”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi there. This is Elise from Everett, Washington.
Elise, what can we do for you?
Well, I was talking with a co-worker, and I was telling her how I recently discovered your show, and we were talking about the phrase, to egg somebody on, and we thought that’d be a good question for you folks.
Okay. Yeah.
What would you like to know about it?
Well, what does it come from?
I don’t know if it’s a chicken-related phrase, or I was thinking maybe it went back to vaudeville, where they throw eggs and tomatoes at the people.
Interesting.
If you’re egging somebody on, you’re encouraging them to do something, right?
Right, right.
So if I’m on stage doing my little tap routine and telling a few jokes, you’re going to throw eggs at me to make me do more?
Well, maybe it’s as a threat.
I think that would be egging you off.
As a threat, though, I can get that.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And they’d have to be rotten eggs, right?
Right, of course.
I think that’s called egging you off.
Don’t egg me off.
I’ll have your badge.
Yeah, I always wondered about that growing up.
I thought it was sort of like pushing an egg along or something.
I don’t know.
You know, trying to roll an egg.
But it turns out, because this comes from an entirely different root, it has nothing to do with eggs or chicken or poultry or hatching.
Nothing, nothing, nothing.
Nothing.
The only thing that’s similar is the fact that they’re spelled the same way, E-G-G.
But the kind of egg, when you’re pushing somebody, comes from an old prehistoric root that has something to do with poking somebody with something sharp.
In fact, it’s etymologically related to the word edge.
So if I’m egging you on, I’m priding you with the pointy end of a sword, right?
Basically, yeah.
Oh, wow.
Making you do the thing you don’t want to do.
Right, right.
And sometimes words end up that way.
They end up spelled the same way but coming from completely different roots, completely different meanings.
So that’s why we say egg on.
I love it when we have these little hidden histories in the language.
We just talked about this.
This is wonderful.
It’s like they’re hidden inside a little egg, and our job on the show is to crack that egg and let it hatch.
Oh, I love it.
Well, I can’t wait to tell my co-worker.
That’s what we talk about all day besides food.
Oh, sound like our people, words and food.
Elise, thank you so much for giving us a call.
Okay, thanks so much for the answer.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
The hidden history of English is amazing.
Call us to talk about it, 877-929-9673, or send your questions about the history of language to words at wewordradio.org.
