看到“egg him on”，您是不是很迷惑？給他雞蛋？那是什么意思？事實上，這一短語和朝人身上扔雞蛋根本不搭邊兒。
Egg 在英文字典中被解釋為：the hard-shelled spheroidal reproductive body produced by females of animals such as birds, reptiles, fish, etc especially that of a domestic hen. 即是指鳥類、爬行動物、昆蟲等產的卵、蛋；尤指雞蛋。
別著急，egg 還可以做動詞用，常見的形式為egg somebody on (to do something)，意思是 to incite, urge or strongly encourage sb to do sth 用中文來說就是慫恿或鼓動某人作某事。例如: "He wouldn't have thrown that stone if the other boys hadn't egged him on. " (要不是那些男孩子慫恿他，他不會仍那塊石頭。) 再例如: I didn’t want to do it but Tom kept egging me on. (我本不想做那件事, 但湯姆一直慫恿我。)
這個用法借自古代斯堪的納維亞語，和現代英語的edge一詞同源。從語義的角度來說，兩者的聯系似乎并不明顯。但是在英文中，edge 本身也能這么用。 “to give an edge to” 即為 “to encourage”。
(中國日報網站譯)
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