The abbreviation e.g. is actually for the Latin phrase "exempli gratia" which means "for the sake of example." So basically it is "e.g." because it is based on the Latin phrase.

Younger generations have come to read e.g. as: example given--though the answer stating the Latin term is correct. This is a great example that shows how language is altered with and by the younger generations.

Because all of the dictionaries and reference books state that it is. If it weren't, they wouldn't state that it is.

It is short for the Latin exempli gratia, meaning "for example".

Some persons confuse between e.g. and i.e. abbreviations; then mean different things and have different origins. The abbreviation e.g., meaning "for or as an example," comes from the Latin expression exempli gratia ("for example"). Use it when you want to list a few typical examples of the thing mentioned: I have the laboratory equipment, e.g., [not i.e.] beakers, thermometers, and test tubes, that we need. Do not end a list that starts with e.g. with etc. The abbreviation i.e., meaning "that is, that is to say," comes from the Latin expression id est ("that is"). Use it when you want to give a more precise description of the thing mentioned: The hearing, i.e., [not e.g.] the preliminary hearing, is set for noon Friday. Two periods punctuate e.g. and i.e. in U.S. English, whereas they may be unpunctuated in British English. Surround these abbreviations with commas. http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=1861607624 Another confusion will be with 'viz.', commonly used to introduce examples. This expression lies ambiguously between i.e. and e.g., in the following way: The list of examples that follows it may not be an exhaustive list, in which case it means something like e.g. Alternatively, the list following it may be exhaustive or complete, from some point of view, in which case viz. means something like i.e. This expression is a good way of covering your ass when you don't understand a thing well enough to define it, but you think that you can give a list that probably covers all cases. Viz. is an abbreviation of the Latin adverb videlicet, which originally meant something like ``clearly,'' and came from the expression videre licet, meaning ``to be able to see.'' You may ask: `where does the z come from?' What z? Oh! That z. The one in the abbreviation. Well, this may be hard to believe, but back in the Middle Ages, before the time when life started to get hectic, books were reproduced by hand. Even monks, who have centuries to work, would get writer's cramp, so they would come to another long and frequently-appearing word like videlicet, peer down towards the end of it and think: `everyone knows what the word is.' Like good sports they'd start out to write it, but by the time they'd written v i they would begin to LOSE HEART, so they'd just sort of write a squiggle that looks like a resistor in a circuit diagram, except that those things didn't exist yet. Instead, they saw that it resembled a z (especially a script z), so they got into the habit of writing v i z. http://www.plexoft.com/SBF/V01.html#viz.

Because the person that first abbreviated the word did not have his/her glasses on and read "examgle"

'Cuz it's Latin E.G. stands for "exempli gratia," which means "for example."

e.g is abbreviation of the latin words 'exempli gratia' meaning for example