"break <someone's> eggs"

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Thu Aug 5 17:10:19 UTC 2010


At 8/5/2010 08:42 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>Re; "break your eggs."  "Eggs" could well have had testicular overtones or
>even a meaning, but the limited evidence I have places "break/bust your
>balls" well in the 20th C.

I meant only to suggest the possible equivalence
in meaning of the two, not anything ancient about
"break your balls".   (Just as the figurative
"tomcod" (the literal refers to "a small fish",
aka "frost fish") as a deprecatory appellation
for someone suggests a parallel with "small fry".)

But now I suppose we'll all have to look for
"break <someone male's> eggs", both before but
especially after 1729.  A very quick look in
Google Web for "break his eggs" suggests that it
has the hypothesized meaning today.  E.g.,

Spice up the sex Aug 21, 2007...
"at all,but dont give up on him til u catch him
in the chicken coop then break his eggs,ring his
neck,and burn his bush hehe good luck ..."

Joel


>JL
>
>On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 9:48 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: queen = "male homosexual", 1729
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 7:38 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > > "pullet" (usu. a young girl)
> >
> > Precursor of "chick"?;-)
> > --
> > -Wilson
> > ­­­
> > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"­­a strange complaint to
> > come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> > ­Mark Twain
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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