What is a Bad Egg?
When someone is referred to as a bad egg, it means that he or she has turned out to be bad, despite early signs of being a decent person. Terms like “bad apple” and “bad seed” are also used in the same way. The term often comes with an implication that the individual in question does not have a chance at redemption; like a rotten egg, he or she is simply bad to the core. People have been referring to each other as “eggs” since the 1600s, and the origins of the use of “egg” in slang are a bit unclear. It may be a reference to the classical egg-shape of the human head. The sense of a “bad egg” emerged in the mid-1800s, first appearing in a newspaper opinion column about a corrupt mayor. The column pointed out that he had numerous links to the underworld, despite seeming like an ordinary fellow, and righteous citizens should not vote for him in the upcoming election. Just like a literal bad egg, a human bad egg typically has a perfectly ordinary surface which does not provide any hints as
