egg
/ɛɡ/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms eggs egging egged eggest eggedst eggeth egge agg
- noun An approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, often housing an embryo within a membrane or shell during its development.
- noun (specifically, countable) The (usually) non-developing, edible egg (sense 1.1) of a domestic fowl such as a duck, goose, or, especially, chicken; (uncountable) the contents of such an egg or eggs used as food. “We made a big omelette with three eggs for breakfast.”
- noun (by extension, countable) A food item shaped to resemble an egg (sense 1.1.1), such as a chocolate egg.
- noun (also cytology) Synonym of ovum (“the female gamete of an animal”); an egg cell.
- noun (countable) A thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).
- noun A swelling on one's head, usually large or noticeable, resulting from an injury.
- noun (architecture) Chiefly in egg and dart: an ornamental oval moulding alternating in a row with dart or triangular shapes.
- noun (chiefly sports) A score of zero; specifically (cricket), a batter's failure to score; a duck egg or duck's egg.
- verb To throw (especially rotten) eggs (noun sense 1.1.1) at (someone or something). “The angry demonstrators egged the riot police.”
- verb 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.”
- verb (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.
- verb To collect the eggs (noun sense 1.1) of wild birds.
- verb (England, vulgar, dialectal) To conceive a child, especially recklessly. “I was out with my girlfriend in Birmingham, when some colorful local told us not to egg.”
- verb (transitive, obsolete except in egg on) To encourage, incite, or urge (someone).
- proper noun A surname.
- proper noun (automotive, informal) A Koenigsegg car.
- proper noun (with the, Dragon Age fandom slang, humorous) The character Solas from the Dragon Age franchise (referring to his baldness).
- proper noun A market town in Bregenz district, Vorarlberg, Austria.
- proper noun A municipality in Uster district, Zürich canton, Switzerland.
Synonyms
ey huevo oeuf ovum goose egg love edge provoke tempt eggs testis testicle orchis ball ballock bollock nut
Etymology
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 consume”). Doublet of huevo, oeuf, and ovum.
Cognate with North Frisian ai (“egg”), Saterland Frisian Oai (“egg”), West Frisian aai, aei (“egg”), Bavarian Oa (“egg”), Dutch ei (“egg”), German Ei (“egg”), German Low German Ai, Ägg (“egg”), Limburgish ei, Éï (“egg”), Luxembourgish Ee (“egg”), Mòcheno oi (“egg”), Vilamovian e (“egg”), Yiddish איי (ey, “egg”), Danish æg (“egg”), Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk egg (“egg”), Swedish ägg (“egg”), Crimean Gothic ada (“egg”); also Breton vi (“egg”), Cornish oy (“egg”), Welsh wy (“egg”), Latin ōvum (“egg”), Greek αβγό (avgó), αυγό (avgó, “egg”), Albanian vo (“egg”), Belarusian and Russian яйцо́ (jajcó, “egg”), Bulgarian яйце́ (jajcé, “egg”), Czech vejce (“egg”), Macedonian јајце (jajce, “egg”), Polish jajo (“egg”), Serbo-Croatian ја́јце, jájce (“egg”), Slovak vajce (“egg”), Slovene jájce (“egg”), Ukrainian яйце́ (jajcé, “egg”), Ossetian айк (ajk), айкӕ (ajkæ, “egg”), Armenian ձու (ju, “egg”), Northern Kurdish hêk (“egg”), Southern Kurdish خا (xa, “egg”), Zazaki hak (“egg”), Pashto هګۍ (hagë́y), ويه (wë́ya, “egg”), Persian خاگ (xâg), خایه (xâye, “egg”).
The native English ey [and other forms] (plural eyren) (obsolete), from Old English ǣġ, is also derived from Proto-Germanic *ajją. It survived into at least c. 16th century before being fully displaced by egg.
The verb is derived from the noun.
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 English eggian (“to egg, excite”), 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”).
* Danish ægge, egge (“to incite, egg on; to excite, rouse”)
* Swedish egga (“to excite, egg on”)
* Faroese eggja (“to incite, egg on; to sharpen”)
* Icelandic eggja (“to incite, egg on”)
* Old English ġeeġġian (“to incite, egg on”)
* Old Frisian eggia (“to fence”)
* Middle Low German eggen (“to sharpen”)
* Old High German ungiekkōt (“unworked, unformed”)
* Middle High German ecken (“to sharpen”), German ecken (archaic)
Compare typologically another cognate: Russian поощря́ть (pooščrjátʹ), akin to Russian о́стрый (óstryj), ultimately from the same PIE root.
Also compare typologically noncognate: Bulgarian потиквам (potikvam), Czech nabádat (“urge, exhort”), Russian подстрека́ть (podstrekátʹ).
Webster’s 1913
- noun The oval or roundish body laid by domestic poultry and other birds, tortoises, etc. It consists of a yolk, usually surrounded by the "white" or albumen, and inclosed in a shell or strong membrane.
- noun A simple cell, from the development of which the young of animals are formed; ovum; germ cell.
- verb To urge on; to instigate; to incite Adam and Eve he egged to ill. Piers Plowman.
Etymology [OE., fr. Icel. egg; akin to AS. æg (whence OE. ey), Sw. ägg, Dan. æg, G. & D. ei, and prob. to OSlav. aje, jaje, L. ovum, Gr. ugh, Gael. ubh, and perh. to L. avis bird. Cf. Oval.]
Etymology [OE. eggen, Icel. eggja, fr. egg edge. Edge.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “egg”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details