ear
English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (UK) IPA(key): /ɪə̯/
- (US) IPA(key): /ɪɚ/, /ɪɹ/
Audio (CAN) (file) Audio (RP) (file) Audio (GA) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
- Homophone: -eer
Etymology 1[edit]
From Middle English ere, eare, from Old English ēare (“ear”), from Proto-West Germanic *auʀā, from the voiced Verner alternant of Proto-Germanic *ausô (“ear”) (compare Scots ear, West Frisian ear, Dutch oor, German Ohr, Swedish öra, Danish øre), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ṓws (compare Old Irish áu, Latin auris, Lithuanian ausìs, Russian у́хо (úxo), Albanian vesh, Ancient Greek οὖς (oûs), Old Armenian ունկն (unkn), and Persian هوش (huš)).
Noun[edit]
ear (plural ears)
- (countable) The organ of hearing, consisting of the pinna, auditory canal, eardrum, malleus, incus, stapes and cochlea.
- (countable) The external part of the organ of hearing, the auricle.
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., OCLC 222716698:
- Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.
- (countable, slang) A police informant.
- 1976, Stirling Silliphant, Dean Riesner, Gail Morgan Hickman, The Enforcer.
- No I'm not kidding, and if you don't give it to me I'll let it out that you’re an ear.
- 1976, Stirling Silliphant, Dean Riesner, Gail Morgan Hickman, The Enforcer.
- The sense of hearing; the perception of sounds; skill or good taste in listening to music.
- 1849, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1850, OCLC 3968433, (please specify |part=prologue or epilogue, or |canto=I to CXXIX):
- songs […] not all ungrateful to thine ear
- a good ear for music
- The privilege of being kindly heard; favour; attention.
- 1625, Francis Bacon, Apophthegms
- Dionysius […] would give no ear to his suit.
- 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene ii]:
- Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
- 1625, Francis Bacon, Apophthegms
- That which resembles in shape or position the ear of an animal; a prominence or projection on an object, usually for support or attachment; a lug; a handle.
- the ears of a tub, skillet, or dish; The ears of a boat are outside kneepieces near the bow.
- 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, H.L. Brækstad, transl., Folk and Fairy Tales, page 291:
- When they got as far as the little valley north of Oppenhagen - where the land-slip took place - he thought he sat between the ears of a bucket; but shortly this vanished also, and it was only then he really came to himself again.
- (architecture) An acroterium.
- (architecture) A crossette.
- (journalism) A space to the left or right of a publication's front-page title, used for advertising, weather, etc.
- 2006, Richard Weiner, Charles M. Levine, The Skinny about Best Boys, Dollies, Green Rooms, Leads, and Other Media Lingo (page 26)
- In journalism, ears flank the title as boxes in the left and right top corners of a publication (generally a newspaper).
- 2006, Richard Weiner, Charles M. Levine, The Skinny about Best Boys, Dollies, Green Rooms, Leads, and Other Media Lingo (page 26)
Alternative forms[edit]
- ere (obsolete)
Descendants[edit]
- Tok Pisin: ia
Derived terms[edit]
- bend somebody's ear
- between the ears
- by ear
- cauliflower ear
- earache
- earbud
- ear canal
- eardrum
- earful
- earhole
- earlobe
- earmark
- earphone
- earpiece
- ear-piercing
- earprint
- earring
- ears are burning
- earshot
- earsore
- ear tag, ear-tag
- ear to the ground
- ear trumpet
- earwax
- earworm
- earworthy
- external ear
- have one's ears lowered
- have one's ears on
- inner ear
- little pitchers have big ears
- make a silk purse of a sow's ear
- middle ear
- mind's ear
- outer ear
- out on one's ear
- surfer's ear
- swimmer's ear
- up on one's ear
- walls have ears
Translations[edit]
Verb[edit]
ear (third-person singular simple present ears, present participle earing, simple past and past participle eared)
- (humorous) To take in with the ears; to hear.
- Two Noble Kinsmen
- I eared her language.
- Two Noble Kinsmen
- To hold by the ears.
- 1964, John Hendrix, If I Can Do It Horseback: A Cow-Country Sketchbook, page 40:
- Sometimes, the helper eared the horse down; and sometimes he used a blindfold.
- 2013, Fay E. Ward, The Cowboy at Work:
- The general technique was to rope the horse around the neck, and, while one or two men eared the horse down (held him by the ears), the rider saddled the animal and stepped above him.
See also[edit]
Etymology 2[edit]
From Middle English eere, er, from Old English ēar (Northumbrian dialect æhher), from Proto-West Germanic *ahaʀ, from Proto-Germanic *ahaz (compare West Frisian ier, Dutch aar, German Ähre), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”) (compare Latin acus (“needle; husk”), Tocharian B āk (“ear, awn”), Old Church Slavonic ость (ostĭ, “wheat spike, sharp point”). More at edge.
Noun[edit]
ear (plural ears)
Synonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
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Verb[edit]
ear (third-person singular simple present ears, present participle earing, simple past and past participle eared)
- (intransitive) To put forth ears in growing; to form ears, as grain does.
- This corn ears well.
Translations[edit]
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Etymology 3[edit]
From Middle English eren, from Old English erian, from Proto-West Germanic *arjan, from Proto-Germanic *arjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂erh₃- (“to plough”).
Verb[edit]
ear (third-person singular simple present ears, present participle earing, simple past and past participle eared)
- (archaic) To plough.
- 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
- That power I have, discharge; and let them go
To ear the land that hath some hope to grow,
For I have none.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Deuteronomy 21:4:
- And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer's neck there in the valley
Translations[edit]
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Anagrams[edit]
Latin[edit]
Verb[edit]
ear
Middle English[edit]
Noun[edit]
ear
- Alternative form of eere (“ear of grain”)
Old English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
From Proto-Germanic *auraz. Akin to Old Norse aurr (“mud”).
Noun[edit]
ēar m
Declension[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Etymology 2[edit]
From Proto-West Germanic *ahaʀ, from Proto-Germanic *ahaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“pointed”).
Alternative forms[edit]
- æhher – Northumbria
Noun[edit]
ēar n
- ear (of corn)
Declension[edit]
Descendants[edit]
Scots[edit]
Adverb[edit]
ear (not comparable)
- Alternative form of air (“early”)
References[edit]
- “ear, adv., adj.” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
Scottish Gaelic[edit]
Noun[edit]
ear f
Derived terms[edit]
References[edit]
- Edward Dwelly (1911), “ear”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
- “ear” in Am Faclair Beag - Scottish Gaelic Dictionary.
- “ear” in LearnGaelic - Dictionary.
West Frisian[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Old Frisian āre, from the voiced Verner alternant of Proto-Germanic *ausô, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ṓws.
Noun[edit]
ear n (plural earen, diminutive earke)
Derived terms[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- “ear (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011
Yola[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English er, from Old English ǣr, from Proto-West Germanic *airi.
Preposition[edit]
ear
References[edit]
- Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith
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- en:Face