Meaning: egg

Illustrative Context

Don't drop the egg; it’ll break!

Target Sense

• The most generic noun for the egg of a bird.
• Must be able to refer to the prototypical sense of an egg with a hard outer shell, generally light in colour, and of medium size, such as the egg laid by a duck or a hen.
• In many languages the lexeme selected may be more widely applicable, including to reptiles, but do not select terms specific to the eggs of reptiles.
• Similarly, the term selected may be applicable also to soft ‘eggs’ without a hard outer shell, but do not select terms specific to this sense.
• Follow common usage, not strict biological terminology. Certainly avoid technical terms such as ovum, and terms limited to specific types of biological egg, e.g. frogspawn.
• Avoid terms limited to eggs seen as food.