Etymology

better an egg today than a hen tomorrow

Today it means: It is better to have a sure thing now than a possibility of more later. Full definition →

Latin ad praesens ova cras pullis sunt meliora
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Latin · calque ofad praesens ova cras pullis sunt meliora
  2. English todaybetter an egg today than a hen tomorrow

Calque of Latin ad praesens ova cras pullis sunt meliora, from Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.