Eggshells

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The rigid protective outer layer surrounding the contents of a bird's egg
2. A fragile shell that encloses the interior of an egg, usually made of calcium carbonate
3. The thin but sturdy casing of an egg that safeguards the yolk and white

Etymology: "Eggshells" is simply the plural of "eggshell," and the singular is a plain compound: "egg" plus "shell," two of the oldest words in English. The compound already existed in Old English as "ǣġsċill," so the English speakers who first named the thin casing around a chick were using the same two building blocks we use today. The word has a close relative in nearly every Germanic language. German speakers say "Eierschale," Dutch speakers "eierschaal," Swedes "äggskal," and Danes "æggeskal." Each one joins its own word for egg to its word for shell, so the compound is a shared inheritance from the common Germanic ancestor of these languages rather than a borrowing from Latin or French. Over the centuries the English spelling shifted from forms like "eye schell" and "egg-shel" toward the modern two-word and one-word versions, but the underlying meaning stayed fixed on the literal object. The plural "eggshells" is used for more than one such casing, and the idiom "walking on eggshells" comes from the same literal image of fragile shells.

Synonyms: shells, casings, envelopes