egg of Columbus

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

• Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  Play

Referring to an apocryphal story in which Christopher Columbus, having been told that discovering the Americas was inevitable and no great accomplishment, challenges his critics to make an egg stand on its tip. When they give up, he does it himself by tapping the egg on the table to flatten its tip.

28 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Asturian: güevu de Colón — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Catalan: l'ou de Colom — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Czech: Kolumbovo vejce — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Danish: columbusæg — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Danish: Columbus-æg — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Dutch: ei van Columbus — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Esperanto: ovo de Kolumbo — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Finnish: Kolumbuksen muna — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• French: œuf de Colomb — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Galician: ovo de Colón — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• German: Ei des Kolumbus — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Greek: το αβγό του Κολόμβου (to avgó tou Kolómvou) — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Indonesian: telur Columbus — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Italian: uovo di Colombo — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Japanese: コロンブスの卵 (koronbusu no tamago) — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Korean: 콜럼버스의 달걀 (kolleombeoseuui dalgyal) — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Lithuanian: Kolumbo kiaušinis — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Norwegian Bokmål: columbi egg — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Norwegian Nynorsk: columbi egg — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Polish: jajko Kolumba — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Portuguese: ovo de Colombo — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Romanian: uòu de Colomb — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Russian: колумбово яйцо (kolumbovo jajco) — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Slovak: Kolumbovo vejce — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Slovak: Kolumbusovo vejce — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Spanish: huevo de Colón — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Swedish: Columbi ägg — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact
• Ukrainian: колумбове яйце (kolumbove jajce) — brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple after the fact