An archaic or dialectal term referring to a type of sharp or bitter quality, or in some contexts, a waterspout or tidal bore.
From Old French and Latin roots relating to sharpness or eagerness; possibly connected to 'eager' through Indo-European stems denoting intensity or acuteness.
This word sits in the murky space where English borrowed from Romance languages—many 'egr-' words share that sense of sharp intensity, which is why egregious (extremely bad) and egret (a sharp-featured bird) seem linguistically cousins despite their different meanings.
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