Talk:Teaching grandmother to suck eggs

Why?
But why would one *want* to suck eggs? Jordan Brown (talk) 00:26, 17 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Perhaps to empty the shell for decoration or for use in the Egg Register of distinctive clown makeup designs. Otherwise they'd go off, and rotten eggs are notorious for smelling bad. --82.46.154.229 (talk) 06:15, 23 January 2011 (UTC)
 * For the sake of clarity and completion, a brief mention of what "sucking eggs" entails should be included, otherwise our younger readers might imagine it refers to imbibing an eggnog or suchlike, perhaps through a straw, and with a gin component, else why should granny lust for it as much as she does? I will add a brief note on the lines provided above. Myles325a (talk) 03:52, 5 January 2012 (UTC)


 * The really strange thing is that you'd never actually SUCK the egg for this purpose, you'd actually BLOW out the contents into a container and use it for baking or scrambling. 204.92.65.10 (talk) 15:10, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * When seeing 'egg' written, is 'chicken egg' assumed? Seeing usage of the phrase goes back half a millennium (even longer ago than your question!), I would not be surprised if it were eggs in general, and perhaps wild birds' eggs found and eaten on the spot as you would nowadays pick and eat brambles and berries in the forest. Eggs from small birds are more fragile than chicken eggs, and would need more experience to consume them raw without getting dirty fingers than chicken eggs. Boudewijn (talk) 10:15, 30 January 2022 (UTC)

It is also necessary to 'coddle' the egg before blowing. That is, disrupt the yolk and shake the contents vigorously so as to obtain an homogeneous and more fluid liquid. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.164.198.170 (talk) 17:34, 31 May 2013 (UTC)


 * In early 20th century in Britain, this was understood to refer to sucking the contents out of the raw egg so that you could preserve and decorate the shell for Easter. [source: my father and others] Lehasa (talk) 12:05, 9 December 2016 (UTC)

The origin section is weird
Maybe there's something that I don't get, but since the phrase is known to have been used in 1707 - and is recorded as such by the OED - why are the others, such as the 1890s Punch cartoon, even considered possibilities for the origin of the phrase? It's either the one cited by the OED or something earlier, no? Carlo (talk) 15:24, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

Vandalism?
"And they would rape and pillage the village after getting skillage." This seems irrelevant, doesn't appear to come from the nearest cited source. Suggest removal? 173.111.86.35 (talk) 06:03, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

Other locations
This phrase appears repeatedly in the Black Company series by Glen Cook, although there is no way to glean the actual intent of the phrase or any etymology of it from a fantasy fiction series the context is different than that suggested by the page author of a response to someone giving advice without respect for the receivers knowledge. The context as in those texts and other random places where I've seen it seems to be more synonymous to telling someone to fornicate themselves or something else in an undesirable way. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.93.45.53 (talk) 01:23, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

Remove Page and Add to Wiktionary?
This page is an orphan has already been flagged to be copied to Wiktionary. The entry in Wiktionary is small and less informative than this article thus far, but could be easily improved. I think that this page features a rather obscure phrase and, being an orphan, is not going to be read by many. It would be far more fitting for it to be moved over to Wiktionary than for it to remain on Wikipedia, as it seems to not be a truly encyclopedic article.

Does anyone feel that this would be good decision? I would like to hear from other people about this, so please post a response!

Zekeman95 (talk)  z'Comandifi l'Statinaru l'Zeklingtonum!   (  talk  ) 16:07, 12 January 2012 (UTC)


 * It's an important phrase. However, if wiktionary is the rightful place for sayings and their etymology then I would support a move there. If, however, there are existing wikipedia pages for other sayings then I think we should keep the page here. Eitherway, if it goes to wiktionary, I would support an interwiki redirect. cheers Polyamorph (talk) 20:13, 12 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I actually nominated this for transwiki, but I also just realized the phrase is wrong - it's "teach your grandmother to suck eggs", not the gerund form, so it very likely needs to go as an incorrect item here. MSJapan (talk) 01:56, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * My grandad used to say "I'm not trying to teach you to suck eggs". As with many sayings there is not necessarily one correct way of saying them, so that really is not a justifiable reason for removal. Polyamorph (talk) 08:59, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * When I started it 3 years ago, I think wiktionary was not so well known (and probably still not that well known), and was regarded as ideal for single words. I've no idea if that's still the case (I rarely go there). If it is the right place then I think we need a redirect here, because here is where most people search first - unless we can get the developers to include wiktionary in any search here? If you are doing all phrases, etc. then we need to consider also ones included in List of metaphors, List of French words and phrases used by English speakers, List of proverbial phrases, etc. As for the title, when I started looking there was all sorts of variants, nothing really stood out, so I went with the version I knew - true TOWIE style, where people often talk about other people behind their backs ;-) - so one would often hear "(s)he's teaching grandmother to suck eggs again" - we would never use "To teach" far to formal for an Essex Lad like myself!  Ron h jones (Talk) 20:10, 16 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Looking around I see there are lots of articles with same entries as wiktionary, and they have not been deleted, they show a link to the wiktionary page - see Bullshit for example  Ron h jones (Talk) 02:56, 18 February 2012 (UTC)
 * In which case I don't think we should delete the contents on this page, by all means wikitionary can have an entry on the phrase and we can link to that, but I think there is suficient room for expansion of the etymology and use of this phrase to manintain a wikipedia article. If people disagree, then the correct place to address the issue would be WP:AFD, but I think the article should be kept here. Cheers Polyamorph (talk) 20:52, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

Recorded Usage
The "Recorded Usage" section appears to be too lengthy compared to the rest of the article body, and I think could use some cleanup; I'd be glad to hear your opinions before making any attempt at cleanup. MammonI.Dumah (talk) 21:35, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

I was coming here to say exactly the same thing! --OoberMick (talk) 15:00, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

See Also: Mansplaining
Mansplaining is relevant to this topic, since by definition it is "(of a man) to comment on or explain something to a woman in a condescending, overconfident, and often inaccurate or oversimplified manner". This is clearly relevant to the definition of teaching someone to suck eggs "is giving advice to someone else about a subject of which they are already familiar (and probably more so than the first person)". An IP user is repeatedly removing this See Also link. Please could the IP user explain here why they believe it is not relevant. Otherwise, I will again restore the link. Polyamorph (talk) 08:05, 28 April 2018 (UTC)


 * Because it's not an actual concept, it's a feminist buzzword made to spread misandry, shut down the male perspective, oppress men overall out of female sexual frustration and to reinforce female, hormonal-driven delusions.


 * On top of that, it's irrelevant because the delusional fairy tale that it is involves a fantastical scenario in which an intellectual is wrongly demonized for stating facts to the peanut gallery by alleging him of condescension due the cro magnons-in-denial that he has to suffer through being incapable of comprehending the very basic facts before them, whereas Teaching your grandmother to suck eggs is simply a metaphor for stating the obvious, without any delusional allegations of condescending attitudes.


 * Re-adding that "See Also" section is a clear-cut example of PoV-pushing, since it is not a neutral concepts and doesn't originate from a neutral school of thought, or any, for that matter. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.16.107.72 (talk) 18:13, 28 April 2018 (UTC)


 * See this source, which equates the phrases., I was willing to AGF of the IP that this was a content dispute and not vandalism, but given the "female, hormonal-driven delusions" argument, vandalism seems more appropriate, so semi-protection can be requested at WP:RfPP. SarahSV (talk) 20:01, 28 April 2018 (UTC)


 * Agree with Sarah. Hchc2009 (talk) 20:12, 28 April 2018 (UTC)
 * 73.16.107.72's mini-rant above reveals that their edit warring is yet another case of righting great wrongs. Please don't use Wikipedia for that. Johnuniq (talk) 23:10, 28 April 2018 (UTC)

And yet that's what modern feminism is: RGW, and the aforementioned, non-existent concept is proof of that, serving as a key example of their idiotic delusions masquerading as intelligence. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.16.107.72 (talk) 06:19, 30 April 2018 (UTC)

In verse
Can anyone find a decent source for this? The online ones are rubbish; but I've seen it in reputable print, and have known it for 50 years: Teach not thy parent’s mother to extract The embryo juices of the bird by suction. The good old lady [or, That aged lady] can that feat enact, Quite irrespective of [or, Without the need for all] your kind instruction. Narky Blert (talk) 20:10, 11 July 2021 (UTC)

Incorrect summary of the Andrew Thompson source.
Under the Origins heading, the following is written:

"many elderly people (grandparents) had very bad teeth, or no teeth, so that the simplest way for them to eat protein was to poke a pinhole in the shell of a raw egg and suck out the contents"

This is an incorrect summary of the Andrew Thompson source. It mentions nothing about elderly people poking a hole and "sucking out the contents" of a raw egg. Rather, it states that they ate hard boiled eggs.

Here is the full passage from the source:

"Don’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs began hundreds of years ago before advanced dentistry techniques were common. In those days, dental hygiene was not very good and dentures were expensive. When a poor person got old and their teeth fell out, they were left with only gums. One of the easiest foods to eat without teeth was a hard-boiled egg that the person could suck down. It was often grandparents who were seen doing this and, through years of practice, they became experts at eating eggs this way. The phrase was first recorded in John Stevens’ 1707 translation of the collected comedies of the Spanish playwright Francisco de Quevedo, which contained the line, “You would have me teach my Grandame to suck Eggs.”"

This is a dubious source at best. Andrew Thompson is a children's book writer and doesn't appear to be any sort of subject matter expert. Furthermore, the book being cited in this article has no bibliography or list of sources. Personally, I would be hesitant using this source in any sort of research.

Haskyll (talk) 18:25, 6 January 2022 (UTC)