edge

pronunciation

How to pronounce edge in British English: UK [edʒ] word uk audio image

How to pronounce edge in American English: US [edʒ] word us audio image

Noun:

the boundary of a surface
a sharp side formed by the intersection of two surfaces of an object
a line determining the limits of an area
the attribute of urgency
a slight competitive advantage
a strip near the boundary of an object
Verb:

advance slowly, as if by inches
provide with a border or edge
lie adjacent to another or share a boundary
provide with an edge

Word Origin

edge: edge: [OE] Edge is probably the main native English representative of the Indo-European base *ak- ‘be sharp or pointed’, which has contributed so many words to the language via Latin and Greek (such as acid, acrid, acute, acne, alacrity, and oxygen). Its Germanic descendant was *ag-, on which was based the noun *agjā, source of German ecke ‘corner’, Swedish egg ‘edge’ (a probable relative of English egg ‘urge’), and English edge. The word’s application to a ‘border’ or ‘boundary’ dates from the late 14th century.=> acid, acne, acrid, acute, alacrity, egg, oxygen

edge (n.): Old English ecg "corner, edge, point," also "sword" (also found in ecgplega, literally "edge play," ecghete, literally "edge hate," both used poetically for "battle"), from Proto-Germanic *agjo (cognates: Old Frisian egg "edge;" Old Saxon eggia "point, edge;" Middle Dutch egghe, Dutch eg; Old Norse egg, see egg (v.); Old High German ecka, German Eck "corner"), from PIE root *ak- "sharp, pointed" (cognates: Sanskrit asrih "edge," Latin acies, Greek akis "point;" see acrid). Spelling development of Old English -cg to Middle English -gg to Modern English -dge represents a widespread shift in pronunciation. To get the edge on (someone) is U.S. colloquial, first recorded 1911. Edge city is from Joel Garreau's 1992 book of that name. Razor's edge as a perilous narrow path translates Greek epi xyrou akmes. To be on edge "excited or irritable" is from 1872; to have (one's) teeth on edge is from late 14c., though "It is not quite clear what is the precise notion originally expressed in this phrase" [OED].

edge (v.): late 13c., "to give an edge to" (implied in past participle egged), from edge (n.). Intransitive meaning "to move edgeways (with the edge toward the spectator), advance slowly" is from 1620s, originally nautical. Meaning "to defeat by a narrow margin" is from 1953. The meaning "urge on, incite" (16c.) often must be a mistake for egg (v.). Related: Edger.