origin of word/saying?

Question

in relation to enticing somebody to do something.where does the egged word come from as in egging someone on,and does it actually have anything to do with eggs?

Answer 1

found this on website shown below....
Egg: To egg on means to urge someone to continue doing something that is, perhaps, a little dubious, such as a schoolboy being encouraged by his classmates to make faces at the teacher behind his back. Why Egg? This could be an adulteration of the word Edge and the expression should perhaps really be to edge on.
However! there is another, more likely origin. In this case egg derives from the old English eggian which means "to spur" or "to incite".

Answer 2

Interesting question. To 'egg some one on' indeed means to encourage them to do something. But surprisingly enough it has nothing to do with what birds lay.

Rather it comes from Old English 'eggian', from Old Norse 'eggja' - 'to urge'

Birds egg comes from an entirely different root - Old Norse 'egg', related to Old English 'aeg' and Old High German 'ei'

I think there is a technical term for when words that look the same are assumed to be the same, but cannot remember it. perhaps someone can tell us.

Answer 3

I always thought egging someone on wasn't an encouragement but a heckling of some sort. Audiences throw eggs at performers they don't like...that and over ripe tomatoes.

Getting "egg" on your face is also considered something rather bad...egg is hard to remove and is a tell tell sign of what you have been up to. Getting "egg" on your face is like having lipstick on your collar that doesn't belong to your wife...it says you've been up to "no good" and the proof is all over you and you can't get it off very easily.

Eggs seem to have a pretty bad rap in the English vocabulary, don't they?

Answer 4

You may find it in the book of quotations.I think this is only a philosophical saying as, Do not put all your eggs in one basket! (eggs are easily broken ) so therefore , do not egg people on without sufficient information in their chosen course of action! People who EGG others on, do this because, when asked about the situation, do not have a solution so, therefore EGG others on so they don't lose face! The moral of this story is DO NOT be EGGED on by anyone ,ask someone who has wisdom on the subject in question !!

Answer 5

To egg on

Meaning: To urge someone to continue doing something that is, perhaps, a little dubious.
Example: Little Johnny egged on his classmates to make faces at the teacher behind her back.
Origin: "Egg" derives from the old English eggian which means "to spur" or "to incite".

Answer 6

There is no connection between "egg on" and actual eggs of any sort. "To egg" meaning "to incite" was a borrowing from Old Norse, in this case the word "eggja," back in the 10th century, which also gave us our modern word "edge" as both a noun and a verb (as in "edging out" a competitor). The original sense of both "to egg" and "to edge" was "to give sharpness to" or "to incite, stimulate, provoke" by making a conflict sharper or more urgent. "To edge" has since taken on the somewhat different meaning of "to advance incrementally" or "to defeat by a small margin," but "to egg" still means "to stir things up".

Answer 7

it says in the Oxford English Dictionary, Origin 'old Norse'. the meaning of Norse in the OED an ancient or medieval form of Norwegian or a related Scandinavian language, adj. relating to ancient or medieval Norway or Scandinavia.

In a word 'dunno'

Answer 8

May be that it began as a mispronunciation of the word 'urged'

Answer 9

Good question. I have absolutely no idea.

Answer 10

not a clu