Etymologically
Log in

egg

Etymology and origin of the English word egg

History Permalink

Egg, the oval body laid by birds, and egg, to urge on, are different words, both from Old Norse.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

egg1 ovum

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1340
Borrowed from
Old Norse egg via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Old Norse (egg)

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English egge, a northern word borrowed from Old Norse egg,[5][1][2] from Proto-Germanic *ajja(m),[5] probably from Proto-Indo-European *ōwyóm, the source also of Latin ōvum and Greek ōión.[1][2][5] A link with Latin avis “bird” is possible but uncertain.[1][2] It replaced Middle English ey, eai, plural eyren, from ǣg, the native cognate.[5][1][6] It is related to oval and ovum.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Norse-derived form is from about 1340 in Barnhart, the mid-14th century in Etymonline,[1][5] while the OED dates the word with its Old English ancestor to 805–31.[7]

Semantic evolution

The northern egg and the southern eye were used side by side until egg won after about 1500.[5][6] In 1490 Caxton told of a merchant at an inn on the Thames who asked for egges and was not understood until another guest asked for eyren.[5][6] Of persons it is from about 1600,[5] at first contemptuously of a young person (1605).[7] Something egg-shaped is from 1589,[7] bad egg “a bad person” from 1855,[5] and a bomb or mine in slang from 1917.[7] Egg on one's face is attested by 1948.[5] The verb, to cover with egg in cookery, is from 1808, and to pelt with eggs from 1857.[5]

Timeline

  • 805–31 – Old English ǣg.[7]
  • c. 1340 – the Norse form eg.[1]
  • c. 1500 – egg displaces eye.[5]
  • 1605 – of a young person.[7]
  • 1808 – verb, in cookery.[5]
  • 1855 – bad egg.[5]
  • 1948 – egg on one's face.[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The oval object with a shell laid by a female bird, reptile or fish, in which a young animal develops.
  2. A hen's egg eaten as food.
  3. A female reproductive cell; an ovum.

Verb

  1. To cover food with beaten egg.
  2. To throw eggs at someone.

egg2 urge

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1200
Borrowed from
Old Norse eggja via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Old Norse (eggja)

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English eggen, borrowed from Old Norse eggja (“to goad, incite”),[5][1][3] from egg “edge”,[5][2][3] so that it is related to edge.[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To incite, urge on, provoke: about 1200 in the OED and Etymonline.[7][5]

Semantic evolution

It is now used chiefly in the phrase egg on.[8][9]

Timeline

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To urge someone to do something, usually something foolish: egged on by his friends.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  2. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Egg.” Etymologically, 16 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/egg. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·