Where does the phrase egg you on come from?

The phrase "egg someone on" comes from a literal act of encouraging a rooster to fight.

Here's the breakdown:

* Historically: Cockfighting was a popular pastime in many cultures, and roosters would often be pitted against each other in brutal fights.

* The "egg": To encourage the roosters to fight, spectators would throw eggs at them, which were believed to energize and excite the birds. The sight of the eggs, and perhaps the smell, would prompt the roosters to fight more fiercely.

* Metaphorical transfer: Over time, the phrase "egg someone on" became a metaphor to describe any situation where someone encourages another person to do something, especially something risky or foolish.

So, the next time you see someone urging a friend to jump off a high dive or take a dare, you can remember that the phrase "egg them on" is rooted in a centuries-old practice of encouraging roosters to fight!