edge

Pronunciation

• IPA: /edʒ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English egge,^[2][3] inherited from Old English ecg (“corner, edge, point; sword”),^[4][2] from Proto-Germanic *agjō,^[4][5] which is also the source of Old Frisian egg “edge”, Old Saxon eggia “point, edge”, Dutch eg, Old High German ecka (German Ecke “corner”) and Old Norse egg,^[4][2] from Proto-Indo-European *ak- (“to be sharp, rise to a point, pierce”).^[4][2][5] Its relatives outside Germanic include Latin acus “needle” and aciēs “sharp edge”, and Greek akḗ “point”.^[2][3] The change of spelling from Old English -cg through Middle English -gg to modern -dge reflects a widespread shift in pronunciation.^[4] It is related to acid and to the verb egg “to urge on”.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The cutting side of a blade: about 725 in Beowulf,^[2] and in the OED from about 1000.^[7] In Old English poetry it also meant a sword, as in ecgplega “edge play” for battle.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The boundary of a surface is from the 14th century,^[5] after the sharp side of a blade.^[5] Power to cut or wound, figuratively keen effectiveness, is from before 1593,^[7] and of persons, ardour or keenness, from 1581.^[7] Teeth on edge is from the late 14th century, on edge “excited or irritable” from 1872,^[4] and to get the edge on someone, an advantage, is American colloquial from 1911.^[4] The verb, to give an edge to, is from the late 13th century;^[4][7] to move edgeways or advance slowly is from the 1620s, originally nautical,^[4] first recorded by Barnhart in Captain John Smith's Generall Historie of Virginia (1624).^[2] To defeat by a narrow margin is from 1953.^[4] The 16th-century sense “to urge on, incite” is often a mistake for egg.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 725 – cutting edge, in Beowulf.^[2]
• 1297 – verb, to sharpen.^[7]
• 14th century – boundary of a surface.^[5]
• late 14th century – teeth on edge.^[4]
• 1581 – keenness.^[7]
• 1620s – to advance slowly.^[4]
• 1872 – on edge.^[4]
• 1911 – an advantage.^[4]
• 1953 – to defeat narrowly.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The thin sharpened side of a blade.
2. Sharpness; a penetrating or incisive quality.
3. The line where a surface ends; a border or margin.
4. The point just before something begins: on the edge of disaster.
5. An advantage: a competitive edge.

Verb

1. To sharpen.
2. To give a border to.
3. To move or push slowly and gradually.
4. To defeat by a small margin.

Word family

• edgeless
• edger
• edgeways
• edgewise
• edging
• edgy
• hard-edge

Related words

• egg
• acid
• acute
• acme

Usage notes

In Sussex dialect the word also had the form etch,^[8] and in the north of England, Lincolnshire and Dorset another verb edge meant “to harrow”.^[8]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)