Easter egg

 

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Easter egg

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From Easter +‎ egg. Cognate with German Low German Ooosterei (“Easter egg”), Middle High German ōsterei ("Easter egg"; > modern German Osterei).

So called because eggs would be eaten during Easter to break the fasting during Lent. (No eggs, dairy, meat except fish, lard, or foods containing these ingredients could be eaten during Lent.)

The computing sense is from the early 1980s, popularized by the video game Adventure.

• IPA^(key): /ˈiː.stəɹ ˌɛɡ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Easter egg (plural Easter eggs)

1. A dyed or decorated egg, traditionally associated with Easter and, in the Western European tradition, sometimes hidden for children to find.
   • 2009, Ace Collins, chapter 23, in Stories Behind the Traditions and Songs of Easter:

     Because eggs were inexpensive in most regions, the practice of decorating Easter eggs crossed all social classes and remained somewhat simple.

2. A chocolate confection in the shape of an egg, sometimes with chocolates or sweets inside.
   • 2008, Christel Behnke Gehlert, Recollections of a Hamburger: Growing Up German, 1941-1962, page 143:

     I reached the first fork in the tree and there they lay—several melted Easter eggs […] Quickly I tore open the foil and licked the melted chocolate until there wasn't a trace left on the paper.

3. (computing, video games) An undocumented function hidden in a program or video game, typically triggered by a particular input sequence or combination of keystrokes. [from 1980s]

   an Easter egg that displays the names of the application's development team

   • 2011, Myint Swe Khine, Learning to Play: Exploring the Future of Education with Video Games, page 59:

     Once found, the Easter egg will often enable the player to traverse through the game much more rapidly the second time around.

4. (by extension) Any image, feature, or other content that is hidden on a video disc or in a movie, trailer, or poster.
   • 2004, Michael Burns, George Cairns, Designing DVD Menus: How to Create Professional-Looking DVDs:

     For the Best of Bowie DVD release, APl even concealed an Easter egg within a hidden extra.

   • 2008, Jon Lachonis, Amy Johnston, chapter 16, in "Lost" Ate My Life: The Inside Story of a Fandom Like No Other:

     The repeated appearance of a number as an Easter egg is not a new concept for J.J., Burky or those other members of Lost Labs who previously worked on Alias.

   • 2023 January 13, Nick Haramis, “When Did We All Become Pop Culture Detectives?”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Unlike an allusion — a tip of the hat to a previous work — an Easter egg, when found, is an anachronistic disruption, an anti-mimetic breaking of the fourth wall to make room for a joke, clue or grievance.

• (decorated egg): pysanka, Ukrainian Easter egg
• Pascha egg (obsolete)
• Pasch egg (obsolete)

• Easter egg hunt
• Russian Easter egg

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