Meaning
To urge, provoke or goad someone into doing something, especially something risky, foolish or out of character. The 'egg' has nothing to do with hen's eggs; it is an ancient verb meaning to incite. Neutral as to mechanics - the pressure can be playful teasing or malicious instigation - but it usually implies the encouraged act would not happen otherwise. Neutral verb of incitement that usually carries a hint that the encouragement is rash or mischievous. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The egg involved is not the hen's. English has had a verb 'egg', to incite or goad, since around 1200, taken from Old Norse eggja, 'to goad on', itself from the Old Norse noun egg meaning 'edge'; it is in effect a doublet of English 'edge', so egging someone on is literally edging them onward. The Phrase Finder calls egg 'a straightforward variant of edge' and stresses that the phrase has nothing to do with bird's eggs or with over-egging a pudding (its rendering of the Norse source as 'eddja' is idiosyncratic; the standard Old Norse form is eggja). The verb is very early - the form 'eggede' occurs in English around 1200 - and the earliest recorded 'egg on' citation noted by The Phrase Finder is Thomas Drant's 1566 translation of Horace: 'Ile egge them on to speake some thyng, whiche spoken may repent them.' The later culinary verbs, to coat with egg (1808) and to pelt with eggs (1857), are unrelated developments from the noun.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- egg him on
- egg on
- egged on
- egging someone on
Usage Examples
- The other apprentices egged him on until he finally asked the foreman for a raise.
- Her friends egged her on to sing, and she regretted it the moment she stood up.
- Do not egg the dog on - he will actually try to jump the fence.