We woke up this Saturday morning to wonder how the egg meaning as in 'to egg someone on to do something' came to be. One could construct stories around the sort of eggs that we eat but were any of them true?
Consultation of OED revealed that we had two different words of northern European extraction, sounding much the same but meaning something quite different, with both this meaning of egg and the bird meaning of egg being current in this country in the 13th century. Perhaps a case of phonetic convergence, but my knowledge of north European phonetics is not up to making a judgement on such a matter.
But I have found out that egging someone on does not fly in French. You cannot 'oeuf quelqu'un à faire quelque chose'. You have to pousser or inciter. Further evidence of the northern European origin of the meaning.
PS: snap of a substantial ostrich egg breakfast from the trending Lambeth eatery at reference 1. Presently closed. The breakfast looks rather good, although I am not sure that I could manage it without help these days. Perhaps buy it as a breakfast to share, with extra knife and fork. Extra bread too.
Reference 1: http://florentinerestaurant.co.uk/.
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