egg
The oval reproductive body laid by birds and reptiles; used widely as food.
Etymology
Modern English egg is a borrowing from Old Norse egg, which replaced the native Old English ǣġ (both from Proto-Germanic *ajją), from PIE *h₂ōḱ- or *h₂éwyóm meaning "egg." This is one of the clearest examples of Norse influence on English. In the late Middle English period, northern dialects used the Norse-derived egg while southern dialects kept the Old English-derived ey — William Caxton famously complained about this confusion in 1490. Latin ōvum "egg" (giving English oval, ovary, ovulate) descends from the same PIE root, as does Greek ōión "egg." The PIE word likely derives from *h₂ewis "bird" — an egg being literally "a bird's thing." Within English, the compound eggnog, Easter egg, and the idiom "egg on your face" all use the Norse-derived form that won the dialect war.
The Journey: *h₂ōḱ- → egg
*h₂ōḱ-
*ajją
egg
egg (north) / ey (south)
egg
Cognates Across Languages
These words in other languages descend from the same PIE root *h₂ōḱ-. They are not borrowings but independent inheritances from a common ancestor.
| Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Latin | ōvum | egg |
| Greek | ōión | egg |
| Old Norse | egg | egg |
| German | Ei | egg |
| Russian | jajcó | egg |
| Sanskrit | aṇḍá- | egg |
Did You Know?
In 1490, printer William Caxton told a story of a merchant asking for "egges" at a Kentish inn and being told they didn't speak French. The innkeeper only knew "eyren" (the Old English plural). Caxton used this to complain about English dialect chaos. The Norse egg eventually defeated native ey — one of the great lexical battles of English history.