- English translation
He even wants to know which hen laid the egg.
- Literal wording
He asks about the egg, who laid it.
- Meaning and lesson
The image is of a person so inquisitive that even a plain egg becomes a puzzle needing an answer: which hen produced it? It mocks someone who digs into everything around them, treating no detail as too small to question.
The tone is critical. The saying targets prying into other people's affairs, a nosiness seen as an unpleasant trait rather than careful curiosity. It points to a habit of meddling interrogation that others find tiresome or intrusive.
- When it is used
Said of someone who interrogates every detail of other people's business, even trivial matters. It works as a complaint or mocking remark, not praise for thoroughness; applied to someone present, it plainly calls them nosy.
- Register
- colloquial
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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