"break <someone's> eggs"

[Mark Mandel]

Yiddish also. I recall hearing about someone's (grandma?) who, on hearing
that someone had been classified 1A by the draft board (i.e., completely
qualified to be drafted into the Army) and quipped (imagine a heavy Yiddish
accent) "How can they take him into the Army with just one ey?" -- lit.
'egg', slang 'testicle' (testis? I didn't ask my grandma).

Mark

On Sun, Aug 8, 2010 at 1:08 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

>  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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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org