"break <someone's> eggs"

[Victor Steinbok]

  A friend, originally from the Philippines, lost a punning contest
based on this particular quirk (the punchline was, "What do you put on
your husband's eggs every morning?"), so, I would assume, it is "huevos"
also for at least some Spanish speakers from the Philippines.

Russian has a similar connection, although there is some fluctuation
between a straight use and diminutive--the latter is accepted in "polite
company", but the former is mostly vulgar. One would rarely use the
diminutive with actual eggs, but it does happen. Either way, it opens a
door for a lot of folk puns in Russian. (E.g., a riddle: Q: Women are
fighting but the eggs are small and dirty. A: a [supermarket] line for
eggs. It's a bit dated, I suppose.)

Of course, none of these work in contemporary English.

     VS-)

On 8/8/2010 10:52 AM, ronbutters at AOL.COM wrote:
> Time now for someone to tell us again that HUEVOS means 'testes' in Mexican Spanish. Etc. What about RHDAS? What about Albanian?
> ------Original Message------
> From: Joel S. Berson
> Sender: ADS-L
> To: ADS-L
> ReplyTo: ADS-L
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "break<someone's>  eggs"
> Sent: Aug 8, 2010 10:10 AM
>
> In addition to the 1729 quotation I provided for "queen" from _Hell
> Upon Earth_ , Rictor Norton claims a 1726 quotation with the same "O
> you bold pullet I'll break all your eggs."  From The London Journal
> for 1726 May 7, a letter signed by "Philogynus".  See Norton, _Mother
> Clap's Molly House_ (1992), p. 67.
>
> I think neither "egg" = 'testicle' nor "pullet" = 'male homosexual'
> is in the OED.
>
> Joel
>
> 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.
>

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