To Egg On
Ever wonder where the phrase "to egg on" came from? The phrase means to encourage someone to do something -- usually something risky or foolish.
Strangely enough, the origin of the phrase has nothing whatsoever to do with eggs! Instead it comes from the ancient Anglo-Saxon tongue, where the term eggian meant to spur on (as in "eggian" your horse!) The Old Norse tongue had a similar term with a similar meaning. Eggja meant "to incite". When the terms drifted into the English language, they were transformed into the English phrase "to egg on" -- literally to spur or incite someone to do something!