egg

Etymology 1

The noun is derived from Middle English eg, egg, egge (“egg of a domestic or wild fowl; egg of a snake”) [and other forms] (originally Northern England and Northeast Midlands), from Old Norse egg (“egg”), from Proto-Germanic *ajją (“egg”) (by Holtzmann’s law), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm (“egg”), probably from *h₂éwis (“bird”), from *h₂ew- (“to clothe oneself, dress; to be dressed”) (in the sense of an animal clothed in feathers). Doublet of huevo, oeuf, and ovum. The native English ey [and other forms] (plural eyren) (obsolete), from Old English ǣġ, is also derived from Proto-Germanic *ajją. It survived into the 16th century before being fully displaced by egg. The verb is derived from the noun. cognates * Danish æg (“egg”) * Faroese egg (“egg”) * Icelandic egg (“egg”) * Norwegian egg (“egg”) * Swedish ägg (“egg”)

noun

1. (countable, zoology)
   1. An approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, housing the embryo within a membrane or shell during its development.
      1. (specifically, countable) The edible egg (sense 1.1) of a domestic fowl such as a duck, goose, or, especially, a chicken; (uncountable) the contents of such an egg or eggs used as food.
         We made a big omelette with three eggs. (countable)
         I should determine the minimal amount of egg required to make good mayonnaise. (uncountable)
         The farmer offered me some fresh eggs, but I told him I was allergic to egg. (countable, uncountable)
         There after the images and reliques were orderly disposed, the great Priest compassed about with divers pictures according to the fashion of the Ægyptians, did dedicate and consecrate with certaine prayers a fair ship made very cunningly, and purified the same with a torch, an egge, and sulphur; […] 1566, Apuleius, “The Eleventh Booke”, in William Adlington, transl., The Golden Ass of Apuleius Translated out of Latin[…], London: David Nutt[…], published 1893, →OCLC, page 239
         I was 5 moneth in France before I saw a boyled or roasted egge. 1665–1667, John Lauder; Lord Fountainhall, “Journal in France 1665–1667”, in Donald Crawford, editor, Journals of Sir John Lauder, Lord Fountainhall, with His Observations on Public Affairs and Other Memoranda 1665–1676[…] (Publications of the Scottish History Society; XXXVI), Edinburgh: […] University Press by T[homas] and A[rchibald] Constable for the Scottish History Society, published May 1900, →OCLC, page 52
      2. (by extension, countable) A food item shaped to resemble an egg (sense 1.1.1), such as a chocolate egg.
   2. (also cytology) Synonym of ovum (“the female gamete of an animal”); an egg cell.
      In the Fall into the division of labor, [Claude] Lévi-Strauss sees the great hunters trading women to create the exogamous bonds of one hunting band with another. The egg is, but the sperm does. The tiny sperm may be furious in its activity, but its highway to the egg is paved by the alkaline trail set down by the Great Mother. 1981, William Irwin Thompson, “Hominization”, in The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture (A Lindisfarne Series Book), New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, part 2 (The Transformations of Prehistory), page 80
      Although they serve the same function across the plant, animal and fungal kingdoms, sperm and eggs vary wildly in their structure and biochemistry, even among closely related species. […] Many genes that determine sperm and egg structure and biochemistry are rapidly evolving, constantly changing the chemical environment necessary for the sperm to bind to the egg. 2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, “Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, New Haven, Conn.: Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2013-04-22, abstract, page 210
2. (countable) A thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).
   1. A swelling on one's head, usually large or noticeable, resulting from an injury.
   2. (architecture) Chiefly in egg and dart: an ornamental oval moulding alternating in a row with dart or triangular shapes.
   3. (chiefly sports) A score">score of zero; specifically (cricket), a batter's failure to score">score; a duck egg or duck's egg.
   4. (military, dated) A bomb or mine.
3. (countable, figurative)
   1. Senses relating to people.
      1. (informal, dated) A person; a fellow.
         a bad egg    a good egg    a tough egg    Cheerio, old egg!
         Some big, hard-boiled egg meets up with a pretty face, and bingo! He cracks up and melts. 1932, Edgar Wallace, Merian C[aldwell] Cooper, novelization by Delos W[heeler] Lovelace, chapter 4, in King Kong, trade softcover edition, Nevada City, Calif.: Underwood Books, published 2005, page 29
         Up close he looked like a pretty tough egg. His hair was bristling up in the back in spite of what smelled like a whole bottle of Wildroot Creme Oil and he had the flat, oddly shiny eyes that some deep-sea fish have. 1980, Stephen King, “The Wedding Gig”, in Skeleton Crew (A Signet Book), New York, N.Y.: New American Library, published June 1986, page 259
      2. (derogatory, ethnic slur, rare) A white person considered to be overly infatuated with East Asia.
      3. (Internet slang, derogatory, dated) A user of the microblogging service Twitter identified by the default avatar (historically an image of an egg (sense 1.1.1)) rather than a custom image; hence, a newbie or noob.
      4. (transgender">transgender slang) A person regarded as having not yet realized they are transgender">transgender, who has not yet come out as transgender">transgender, or who is in the early stages of transitioning; also, one's lack of awareness that one is transgender">transgender.
         to crack someone’s egg (to cause someone to realize that they are transgender)
         That fits, though, she thought. Wear the same outfit day after day, your brain gets numb to how it looks or feels—Wendy shut the album. No. […] She hated analyzing the whys of [not-out] trans girls. She had always hated it, and she hated how easy it had become; the bottomless hole of egg mode. 2018, Casey Plett, edited by Susan Safyan, Little Fish, Vancouver, B.C.: Arsenal Pulp Press, page 24
         So I remember being told, in the very early part of my transition, that I had been, until now, an egg, and—as powerfully rooted in a belief in latency as I found myself[.] 2020, Grace Lavery, “Egg Theory's Early Style”, in Transgender Studies Quarterly, page 384
      5. (New Zealand, derogatory) A foolish or obnoxious person.
         Shut up, you egg!
      6. (derogatory, obsolete) A young person.
   2. (archaic) Something regarded as containing a (usually bad) thing at an early stage.
      [S]oe Power of Warre / From the firſt Egge of Libertie, out-Creepes / A fatall Serpent; […] a. 1658 (date written), George Daniel, “Trinarchodia. The Raigne of Henry the Fourth.”, in Alexander B[alloch] Grosart, editor, The Poems of George Daniel, Esq. of Beswick, Yorkshire. (1616–1657) from the Original MSS. in the British Museum: Hitherto Unprinted.[…], volume IV, [Boston, Lincolnshire: […] [Robert Roberts] for private circulation only, published 1878, →OCLC, stanza 348, page 88
      In ſhort, the Rebellion had been Cruſh'd in the Egg; and One Seaſonable Act of Rigour, had Sav'd the King, the Monarchy, the Church, and the Three Kingdoms. 1683 June 5 (Gregorian calendar), Roger L’Estrange, “The State of the City of London, in the Late Rebellion.[…]”, in The Observator, in Dialogue, volume I, number 345, London: […] J. Bennet, for William Abington,[…], →OCLC, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Rd5BAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA345 page [1]], column 1
   3. (computing) One of the blocks of data injected into a program's address space for use by certain forms of shellcode, such as "omelettes".
      This approach would be altered for an optimal omelette based exploit. One would spray the heap with the omelette code solely, then load a single copy of the additional shellcode eggs into memory outside the target region for the spray. 2015, Charles Smutz, Angelos Stavrou, “Preventing Exploits in Microsoft Office Documents through Content Randomization”, in Herbert Bos, Fabian Monrose, Gregory Blanc, editors, Research in Attacks, Intrusions, and Defenses: 18th International Symposium, RAID 2015, Kyoto, Japan, November 2–4, 2015: Proceedings (LNCS; 9404; Sublibrary SL4 (Security and Cryptology)), Cham, Switzerland, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemburg: Springer International Publishing, →DOI, →ISSN, page 241

verb

1. (transitive)
   1. To throw (especially rotten) eggs (noun sense 1.1.1) at (someone or something).
      The angry demonstrators egged the riot police.
      The students were caught egging the principal’s car as a prank.
      Like I said before in that chapter, after that ultimate egging, Gay-D didn't mention anything about eggs again, but he meekly ask for us to stop egging Xander's door so that he wouldn't get blamed. 2013 February, M. Golding, “Framing”, in How to Piss Off a Crappy Roommate: From A to Z, [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu, page 89
   2. To inadvertently or intentionally distort (the circular cross-section of something, such as tube) to an elliptical or oval shape.
      After I cut the tubing, I found that I had slightly egged it in the vise.
   3. (cooking) To coat (a food ingredient) with or dip (a food ingredient) in beaten egg (noun sense 1.1.1) during the process of preparing a dish.
      Then mask another large piece with currant jelly, cover it as before, and after egging the edges, roll them over some coarse sugar, and put them immediately in the oven. Join the remaining pieces in the same manner, two and two, and after egging the edges as before, roll them alternately on pistachios and coarse sugar. 1834, M[arie-]A[ntoine] Carême, edited by John Porter, The Royal Parisian Pastrycook and Confectioner:[…], London: F. J. Mason,[…], →OCLC, page 163
2. (intransitive) To collect the eggs (noun sense 1.1) of wild birds.

Etymology 2

From Middle English eggen (“to urge on; to entice, incite, lure, tempt; to encourage, exhort, stimulate; (reflexive) to bestir (oneself); to challenge, taunt; to enrage, irritate”), from Old Norse eggja (“to incite, egg on”), from egg (“an edge”), from Proto-Germanic *agjō (“a corner; an edge”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”). cognates * Danish ægge, egge (“to incite, egg on; to excite, rouse”) * Faroese eggja (“to incite, egg on; to sharpen”) * Icelandic eggja (“to incite, egg on”)

verb

1. (transitive, obsolete except in egg on) To encourage, incite, or urge (someone).
   Hope like a ſpurre pricketh forvvard, feare like a bridle reſtraineth, hope eggeth onvvard vnto vertue, feare pulleth backe from vice, hope incites vs to obſerue the lavv, feare makes vs feare to trãſgreſſe the lavve. 1603, Matthew Kellison, “The First Chapter Sheweth How the Reformers Take Away Hope of Heauen and Feare of Hell, and Consequently Open the Gapp to All Vice”, in A Survey of the New Religion, Detecting Manie Grosse Absurdities which it Implieth.[…], Douai: […] Lawrence Kellam,[…], →OCLC, 7th book (Conteineth a Suruey of the New Doctrine Concerning Manners,[…]), page 510
   And of them they make tvvo ſorts, the good Angels, and the bad: becauſe the good pricketh a man forvvard, to grace, goodneſſe, vertue, and honeſty: the other eggeth him to levvdneſſe, miſchiefe, ſhame, villany, and all kinde of looſe diſhoneſty. 1633, Levine Lemnie [i.e., Levinus Lemnius], “Of the Spirit Universall Generally Inspired into the Whole World, and All the Parts thereof.[…]”, in T[homas] N[ewton], transl., The Touchstone of Complexions.[…], London: […] E[lizabeth] A[llde] for Michael Sparke,[…], →OCLC, pages 34–35
   O harpy Love-rule, murd'rous Hag; / Whither doſt thou blind Mortals drag! / 'Tis thou to Battle eggeſt Kings / As well as Louts to Wreſtling-rings; […] 1758, Maphaeus [i.e., Maffeo Vegio], translated by John Ellis], The Canto Added by Maphæus to Virgil’s Twelve Books of Æneas, from the Original Bombastic, Done into English Hudibrastic; With Notes beneath, and Latin Text in Ev’ry Other Page Annext, London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley[…], →OCLC, lines 227–230, page 35
   Who is egging thee, king, to go back from the oath thou hast sworn? A worthy king of men should be true to his word. It can never beseem thee, my lord, to break thine oath. Who is egging thee, prince, to slaughter the cattle of thy thanes? It is tyranny for a king to do such deed in his own land. 1883, “Bersaoglis Vísor, c. 1039. (From the Lives of Kings, especially Kringla, Hulda, Flatey-bok iii. 267–269.)”, in Gudbrand Vigfusson, F[rederick] York Powell, editors, Corpvs Poeticvm Boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue: From the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century[…], volume II (Court Poetry), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, book VIII (Christian Court Poetry), § 2 (St. Olaf and Cnut), page 147