Egg him on 与“鸡蛋”有关吗

Egg 在英文字典中被解释为：the hard-shelled spheroidal reproductive body produced by females of animals such as birds, reptiles, fish, etc especially that of a domestic hen. 即是指鸟类、爬行动物、昆虫等产的卵、蛋；尤指鸡蛋。

别着急，egg 还可以做动词用，常见的形式为egg somebody on (to do something)，意思是 to incite, urge or strongly encourage sb to do sth 中文的意思就是“怂恿或鼓动某人作某事”。例如: "He wouldn't have thrown that stone if the other boys hadn't egged him on. " (要不是那些男孩子怂恿他，他不会扔那块石头。)

再例如: I didn’t want to do it but Tom kept egging me on. (我本不想做那件事, 但汤姆一直怂恿我。)

这个用法借自古代斯堪的纳维亚语，和现代英语的edge一词同源。从语义的角度来说，两者的联系似乎并不明显。但是在英文中，edge 本身也能这么用。 “to give an edge to” 即为 “to encourage”。