E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Egg-on or Edge-on.
A corruption of the Saxon eggian (to incite). The Anglo-Saxon ecg, and Scandinavian eg, means a “sharp point”—hence edge-hog (hedgehog), a hog with sharp points, called in Danish pin-swin (thorny swine), and in French porc-épic, where épic is the Latin spic’ula (spikes).
