To not like the expression 'good egg' being used to refer to a persons character

[giraffeupatree]

It is being used in the Co-op's Easter advert on the radio. It makes me wince each time I hear it.

Am I being far to politically correct?

I'm assuming that the marketing department of the Co-op have not researched the origins of the expression?

It is the inverse of "bad egg" . Not racist. (See also "curate's egg" for people/things inbetween the two egg poles.

The 'racial' side of this discussion reminds me of the time at work years ago when someone objected to the word 'mufti' because of its supposed origins in India during the Raj, when the word was apparently used to describe British soldiers out of uniform. Professionally offended doesn't even begin to cover it.

So, what I have learned today........
I can call someone a 'good egg' but not just an 'egg' and more importantly that rhyming slang for wine is Quentin

A good egg is sort of public schoolish and the archetypal "good egg" is a jolly good (white) chap that you knew from school.

It simply isn't used in the way that you imply it would have been used (ie, to describe someone who is black but is nevertheless ok). That would indeed be racist for two reasons - firstly for the original rhyming slang derivation which uses a racial slur word and secondly for the "nevertheless" implication of the usage - ie, that most black people are not ok but this particular person is.

But this is not how the phrase is used. It refers to a friend, or acquaintance who is nice. And not cynical. And if anything it has an upper class element to it. So your suggestion makes no sense from a usage perspective.

And from a derivation perspective there's no reason why this particular phrase using the word egg should have been derived from the phrase you say it's derived from as opposed to any other phrase that includes the word egg. Indeed, as shovetheholly demonstrates, the timings to not add up. Despite what a couple of people down the docks might have told you

There are words that everyone knows are offensive. There are words that are in usage that some people may not be aware have offensive origins or meanings today, so to raise awareness of that is a good thing.

But I really don't get the digging back through history to uncover tenuous links to discredit words or phrases (I suspect it has something to do with history or sociology theses). To look for reasons to vilify words or phrases by trying to link them to something negative, whether or not there is any solid evidence for it, seems like a war on language to me.

Limiting the vocabulary? Making people fearful of what they say? Bloody hell, I'm coming over all Orwell here.

"Coming over"? Well my dad came over to this country on a boat in the fifties and that phrase was often used as a term of abuse. Strike it from the language I say!

I have a feeling that this shows the downside of 'research by internet.' I want to see proper, peer-reviewed references.

I'm a cockney, and no one from where I grew up ever used the expression 'a good egg'.
It would have been seen as an expression used by the middle classes, grammar school types, or social climbers.

A good egg means a genuine and reliable sort doesn't it?

Cockney would be diamond geezer or just diamond, IMO:)

Minnie - totally. My experience exactly! My family would have a proper old laugh if they heard me say it. It would be very Hyacinth Bucket .

Out of curiosity, did you also hear 'egg and spoon' as a racist slur like me? And where you from? (You don't have to answer if you don't want to, of course!). My family come from Hackney, but the Angel end of it. I don't know much about London accents and dialects, but it does vary quite a bit place to place. DH has family from south London and the accent is totally different and some of the phrases aren't the same either. Mind you, they are posher than my folk by a way. He doesn't even know the words of any old music hall songs.

Once was in a similar discussion where someone got very put out by the expression "call a spade a spade". Upon questioning they said it was totally racist because it had been used in the 1960s regarding slavery.
It was also used in the way everyone else understood it in the play "Importance of being Ernest" which was written around (I think) 1890s.

Good egg has been around a lot longer than coon or cockney rhyming slang.

FFS seriously?

You are being very over sensitive.

I would take a large pinch of salt to put on this egg story . Don't throw the remainder over your shoulder , might offend any devil worshippers

Was the word that rhymes with egg and spoon even used in the UK as a racial slur? I don't believe it was, I thought it was an American thing? Sounds like an urban legend that that is where good egg comes from.

I just presumed it was the opposite of bad egg. Seems like the most likely explanation. Why do people want to find offence in everything?!

I always assumed it was because you can get rotten eggs but not know until you see the inside of the egg, so what you initially thought be a good egg, turns out not to be IYSWIM

I assumed the same I think. Maybe the 21st century update should be 'good avocado'??

bad egg
noun phrase
A villain, criminal, or other deplorable person; bad actor, baddie (1855+)

The Dictionary of American Slang, Fourth Edition by Barbara Ann Kipfer, PhD. and Robert L. Chapman, Ph.D.
Copyright (C) 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers.
Cite This Source

bad egg
An individual who turns out to be rotten, as in You can't trust him—he's simply a bad egg . Although egg had been used for various kinds of person (young, good, bad) since Shakespeare's day, this transfer of a seemingly wholesome food that, when opened, turns out to be rotten took place only in the mid-1800s. An early definition appeared in The Atheneum of 1864: “A bad egg ... a fellow who had not proved to be as good as his promise.” In contrast, the schoolyard saying Last one in is a rotten egg does not have any special significance other than as a way of urging others to join an activity, jump in the water, or the like.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Black youngsters now use the word 'coon' to mean 'sell out to white culture' i.e. An 'Uncle Tom'

I am above average politically correct

And this is bollox !

Coon cheese is a massively popular brand here. Family name. I don't like buying it

shovetheholly Yes! We're from all over, my lot mainly from Putney, but I do know Hackney, we used to drink round your way!
And yes I've heard 'egg and spoon' used in that way, I'm wondering if thats where OP got her info about eggs from...

I'm a cockney, and no one from where I grew up ever used the expression 'a good egg'.

^ this.

Asked my cockney DH earlier. He said the same as Minnie.

The OP is complaining about the co-op using the term good egg because it may but doesn't tenuously have a link to the phrase egg and spoon.

But what about Cadbury's egg and spoon chocolate eggs? Or egg and spoon races at sports day?

If you are going to get het up about something innocuous that may or may not have derived from a phrase, then surely the actual phrase itself is more of an issue?