ab ovo

American  

[ahb oh-woh, ab oh-voh] / ɑb ˈoʊ woʊ, æb ˈoʊ voʊ /

adverb

Latin.

1. from the beginning.

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ab ovo British  

/ æb ˈəʊvəʊ /

1. from the beginning

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Etymology

Origin of ab ovo

Literally, “from the egg”

Example Sentences

Of plot Horace says little, only suggesting that the poet should not begin ab ovo but plunge at once into the midst of the action.

From Rhetoric and Poetry in the Renaissance A Study of Rhetorical Terms in English Renaissance Literary Criticism by Clark, Donald Lemen

Does it begin in medias res, as is proper, or ab ovo Ledae, as Horace has said that an epic ought not?

From A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century by Beers, Henry A. (Henry Augustin)

Too many memoirs begin with tradition; to trace a subject ab ovo seems to have a fatal attraction for the human mind.

From Maria Edgeworth by Zimmern, Helen

The Romans began their noonday meal with eggs, and ended with a dessert; ab ovo ad malum.

From The Castaways by Pearse, Lolbran

And when they set to work at any political reform they begin ab ovo.

From Russia by Wallace, Donald Mackenzie, Sir