44 A PAPEli ON EGGS, 



In Gowcr, Eic ; as, 



" And i)olished was eke so cleiie 

 That no signe of the senile was .sene, 

 Bnt as it Mcie a grips eie." 



In the Bible of 1551 it is Egge. 



After that time the word assumed its present form in wilt- 

 ing and in print. But we know that in Yorkshire and some 

 other southern counties, like some other words beginning with 

 a vowel, it is pronounced with an aspirate ; whilst other words, 

 which are normally aspirated, have the aspirate omitted, as 

 '' Wat will you ave for breakfast ? Am and Hoggs '?" 



In Greek egg is w6v which, with the digamma (F) interposed 

 between the vowels, and the Latin termination substituted, be- 

 comes ovum. This in Italian is novo ; in Portuguese, ovo ; in 

 Spanish, huevo ; in Catalan, ou ; in Provencal, ov, uov, ueu ; in 

 the district of Bourg, eu ; in that of Berry, a'U ; in Picardy, uc, 

 ui; in the Walloon district, ou. 



In French of the thirteenth century it was uef, oef (pi. oes). 

 as " comme Pecaille d'un uef," and " Les jors que un ne man- 

 gera char, un jor un quartier di fromage et I'autre jor quatre 

 oes." (Du Cangc fr. Chartul. Campin. fol. 273, col. 2.) 



In the fourteenth century, euf, ceuf (i)lur. cufs) ; in the fif- 

 teenth, oeuf (pi. oes) ; after which time it assumed entirely its 

 present orthography. (Littro Diction, dc la lang. Francaise.) 



Oeuf, u)6v, is said to be derived from otov, seul, parceque dans 

 les oiscaux chaque femelle n'en pond ordinairement qu'un par 

 jour. (Diet, des Sc. Med. 1819, torn 37.) 



In the Celtic languages, egg, in Gaelic, is ubh ; iu Irish, ugh ; 

 in Welsh, wy (pi. wyan) ; in Cornish, uy, oy (pi. oyow) ; in Bas 

 Breton, vi, ui (pi. viou), and uieu ; and in Manx, ooh. (Sec 

 Dictionaries of those languages.) 



The relations to each other of most or all of these names for 

 egg will best appear in a (juotation from * * Lectures on the 

 Science of Language by F. Max Midler, M.A., 7th edit., 1873, 

 Vol. II , p. 315, in which this great master in Philologj' states, 

 that "The English sound of i, which in English expresses an 

 eye, oculus, is used in German in the sense of eyy, ovum ; and it 



