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Over-egging the pudding

Posted by RRC on May 11, 2009 at 16:29

In Reply to: Over-egging the pudding posted by Yan Torsen on May 11, 2009 at 15:05:

: With reference to an earlier discussion about 'Over-Egging the Pudding', the Egg in question means to agitate or excite (from Anglo-Saxon eggian). The word only means urge or incite as applied to people. Furthermore the pudding in question probably refers to the entrails of animal, often made into pies, sausages etc. Indeed 'Pudding' appears to derive from a french word meaning a kind of sausage. Thus would not contain egg at all.

So Yan, how did we get from "over excite the sausage" to the current meaning of "to spoil something by trying too hard to improve it". Putting too many eggs in your dessert perfectly explains the meaning.

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