Gourt Home::Gourt :: Egg (person)
"Egg" is a pejorative slang term for someone of Caucasian extraction who shows more interest in East Asian culture than Western culture. This may include interest in Asian languages, dress, history, customs, and so on. The term follows the food motif of the more common "banana" or "twinkie", which describes: a person of Asian heritage who is more in tune with Western culture, usually a direct cause of having been raised outside of Asia. These metaphors derive from color metaphors for race, substituting foods associated with those colors. Thus, an egg can be described as "white on the outside, yellow on the inside".
"Egg" can be considered synonymous with the more neutral term Asiaphile. In the particular case of those who idolize or co-opt Japanese culture, "wapanese", "otaku", or Japanophile are sometimes used. Likewise, sinophile describes a person with a strong interest in China or Chinese culture.
"Good egg"
A good or bad egg is also an English slang expression for describing someone as good or bad. "Bad egg" was often used as public-school slang in the late 19th century, as an analogous parallel between the foul taste of a spoiled egg and the emotional encounter with a "bad egg" person. The history of the usage "good egg" dates back to the early 20th century in educational institutions to describe agreeable and pleasant company; "an exclamation of enthusiastic approbation" according to the Oxford Dictionary. It is thought to be merely a literal inversion of "bad egg". The popularity and spread of these terms into mainstream language is said to have been influenced by such a usage in P.G. Wodehouse's Something Fresh in 1915.
The term is also used in the song Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life For Me) written for the Disneyland ride Pirates of the Caribbean in 1967 by George Bruns and Xavier Atencio, in referring to the evil nature of pirates:
- We're devils and black sheep, we're really bad eggs.
- Drink up me 'earties, yo ho.
Interestingly, "bad egg" is one of the few (possibly the only) English slang expressions that can be translated directly into Chinese, in which it is also slang and is understood to have exactly the same meaning (坏蛋, pronounced hùai dàn in Mandarin). It is unclear whether these two terms are cognate or simply coincidentally the same.
See also
External links
"Egg (person)"