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ab ovo (ab OH-voh) - n., from the beginning.
In Latin literally "from the egg." This is comprehensible enough on its own, but there's a story behind it: English use comes from Horace's Ars Poetica, where he contrasts a poet who begins a story about the Trojan War in media res ("in the middle of things") with one who begins with the egg that Helen hatched from. (This source gets a little confused by Horace also using, in one of his satires, ab ovo usque ad mala, "from the egg to the apples," referring to the course of a Roman mean, starting with eggs and ending with fruit -- compare the
American regionalism "from soup to nuts" -- but the Ars Poetica connection is secure, thanks to some of the first English users of ab ovo directly referencing it.)
---L.
In Latin literally "from the egg." This is comprehensible enough on its own, but there's a story behind it: English use comes from Horace's Ars Poetica, where he contrasts a poet who begins a story about the Trojan War in media res ("in the middle of things") with one who begins with the egg that Helen hatched from. (This source gets a little confused by Horace also using, in one of his satires, ab ovo usque ad mala, "from the egg to the apples," referring to the course of a Roman mean, starting with eggs and ending with fruit -- compare the
American regionalism "from soup to nuts" -- but the Ars Poetica connection is secure, thanks to some of the first English users of ab ovo directly referencing it.)
---L.
