egger-on

English

Etymology

egg on +‎ -er

Noun

egger-on (plural eggers-on)

1. Agent noun of egg on: one who eggs on, one who encourages or provokes another.
   • 1550 [44 BCE], Cicero, anonymous translator, The booke of freendeship of Marcus Tullie Cicero‎^[1], folio 58^v:

     […] let there be an honest likyng, and let flattery the egger on of vice be sette a loufe […]

   • 1766 January, William Smith, Mirror‎^[2], manuscript, page 4:

     Consult the mirror see it shews / Your Eggers on will turn your foes

   • 2006, James M. Lawson, Jr., “Higher Ground: The Nonviolence Imperative”, in Peter Laarman, editor, Getting on Message: Challenging the Christian Right from the Heart of the Gospel, →ISBN, page 27:

     I no longer hesitated; the next day I spent the lunch hour fighting the older, bigger, and heavier boy. But the eggers-on were disappointed because I was not beaten, despite the headache I carried away.

   • 2008, Alexander Humez, Nicholas Humez, On the Dot: The Speck That Changed the World, →ISBN, page 163:

     Our heartfelt thanks go out to the goodly fellowship of personal sources, expert witnesses, and eggers-on who have supplied us with many of the cheerful facts and enlightening suggestions that have gone into the making of this book […]