rotten egg

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛɡ

Noun

rotten egg (plural rotten eggs)

1. (slang, idiomatic, humorous, childish) A person who is the latest, the last, or the slowest in a group to arrive somewhere or to perform a certain task.

   Last one there is a rotten egg!

   • 1942, McCall's, volume 69, page 23:

     This barbaric punishment consisted of chasing the victim all over the school yard, everybody screaming “Rotten egg! Rotten egg!” and pretending to throw missiles.

2. (slang) A closeted transgender person who overcompensates by being actively transphobic.
   • 2021 August 14, Violent_Violette, “Is gender dysphoria an exclusively trans experience?”, in Reddit‎^[1], asktransgender, archived from the original on 2022-09-26:

     Or because they themselves experience gender dysphoria but have gone down the rotten egg path.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:rotten egg.
3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see rotten,‎ egg.