# handegg

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈhændɛɡ/

## Definitions
1. Any of the sports that are called football but are played mainly with the hands and with a prolate spheroid ball; that is, American football and (less often) Canadian, Australian and rugby football (including league and union varieties).
2. The ball used to play such a game.

## Etymology
From hand + egg. The jocular implication is that the name football ought to denote using the foot to propel a ball-shaped [i.e. spherical] object, which is the usual case for soccer, as opposed to using the hand to propel an egg-shaped [i.e. spheroid] object.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/handegg