ear
English
editPronunciation
edit- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɪə̯/
Audio (Received Pronunciation): (file) - (General American, Canada) IPA(key): /ɪəɹ/, /ˈiɹ/
Audio (Canada): (file) Audio (General American): (file) - (General Australian) IPA(key): /ɪə̯/, [ɪː], [ɪə̯~ɪɐ̯]
- (New Zealand) IPA(key): /iə̯/, [iːə̯], [ɪə̯~eə̯]
- Homophones: air, heir, -eer
- Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
Etymology 1
editFrom 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 گوش (gôš)).
Noun
editear (plural ears)
- (countable) The organ of hearing, consisting of the pinna/auricle, 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:
- 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.
- The sense of hearing; the perception of sounds; skill or good taste in listening to music.
- a good ear for music
- 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, (please specify |part=Prologue or Rpilogue, or |canto=I to CXXIX):
- songs […] not all ungrateful to thine ear
- The privilege of being kindly heard; favour; attention.
- 1625, Francis [Bacon], Apophthegmes New and Old. […], London: […] Hanna Barret, and Richard Whittaker, […], →OCLC:
- Dionysius […] would give no ear to his suit.
- 1599 (first performance), 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, [Act III, scene ii]:
- Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
- 1990 August 19, Uwe Stelbrink, quotee, “Fear and uncertainty breed xenophobia in E. Germany”, in Democrat and Chronicle, volume 158, Rochester, N.Y., page 5A:
- They don’t know if they’re going to have a job in a week or a month. They don’t know if they can pay the rising prices. Instead of the paradise they expected July 1, their total existence is unsure. That some foreigners get beaten—nobody has an ear for that now.
- 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; a foot-rest or step of a spade or a similar digging tool.
- Coordinate terms: boss, eye
- the ears of a tub, skillet, or dish; The ears of a boat are outside kneepieces near the bow.
- 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, 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).
- (baking) A curled ridge in the crust of a loaf of bread where the dough was slashed before going into the oven and expands during baking.
- (graph theory) A path whose endpoints may coincide but in which otherwise there are no repetitions of vertices or edges.
Alternative forms
edit- ere (obsolete)
Meronyms
editDerived terms
edit- ass's-ear abalone
- bangle ear
- bat ear
- bear's ear
- behind the ear
- bend somebody's ear
- bend someone's ear
- between the ears
- bionic ear
- blow it out one's ear
- blue-ear disease
- blue ear disease
- blue-ear pig disease
- bunny ear cactus
- burnt ear
- button ear
- by ear
- cat's ear
- cauliflower ear
- closed-ear
- close-ear
- cloud ear
- crop-ear
- cuff on the ear
- cute as a bug's ear
- dog ear
- dog-ear
- dog's-ear
- earache
- ear-achingly
- earage
- earal
- earball
- earbanger
- earbash
- earbasher
- ear beer
- earbob
- ear bob
- earbone
- ear bone
- ear bud
- earbud
- ear-bud
- ear canal
- ear candle
- ear candling
- ear candy
- earcap
- ear chair
- earclip
- earcockle
- ear cockle
- earcon
- ear coning
- earcup
- ear dagger
- ear defender
- ear drop
- eardrop
- eardropper
- ear drops
- eardrum
- ear drum
- eared
- ear fatigue
- ear-finger
- ear finger
- earflap
- earflare
- earful
- eargasm
- eargasmic
- ear hair
- earhole
- earhorn
- ear hustle
- ear jacket
- earlap
- earless
- earlet
- earlid
- earlike
- ear lobe
- earlobe
- earlock
- earloop
- earmark
- ear-minded
- earmold
- earmould
- earmuff
- earnut
- earpad
- earphone
- earpick
- earpiece
- ear-piercing
- ear-piercingly
- earplug
- ear prick
- earprint
- ear rape
- ear-rape
- earreach
- ear-reach
- earring
- ear rocks
- ears are burning
- earset
- ear-shattering
- ear-shell
- ear shell
- earshot
- earshrift
- earsies
- earsore
- ear speaker
- earsplitting
- ear-splitting
- ear-splittingly
- earspool
- earspoon
- ear spoon
- ear-spoon
- earstone
- ear tag, ear-tag
- ear-tagged
- ear toilet
- ear to the ground
- ear training
- ear-trumpet
- ear trumpet
- ear tuft
- ear tunnel
- earware
- earwax
- ear wax
- ear-wax
- earwear
- earwitness
- earwork
- earworm
- ear-worm
- ear worm
- ear-wormy
- earworthy
- elephant ear
- elephant-ear tree
- external ear
- flea in one's ear
- get out of someone's ear
- give ear
- glue ear
- go in at one ear and at out the other
- go in one ear and out the other
- green ear disease
- grin from ear to ear
- hare's ear
- hart's ear
- have a word in someone's ear
- have one's ears lowered
- have one's ears on
- have someone's ear
- have the wolf by the ear
- have Van Gogh's ear for music
- hearing-ear dog
- helicopter ear
- hookeared
- in-ear
- in-ear monitor
- inner ear
- internal ear
- in the ear
- jelly ear
- Jew's ear
- Jew's-ear
- Judas-ear
- knife ear
- knife-ear
- lend an ear
- lion's ear
- listen with half an ear
- little pitchers have big ears
- longear
- make a pig's ear of
- make a silk purse of a sow's ear
- Midas's ear
- middle ear
- mind's ear
- monkey-ear tree
- mouse-ear
- mule's ear
- music to someone's ears
- offensive to pious ears
- open-ear
- outer ear
- out on one's ear
- pig's ear
- play by ear
- pour honey in one's ear
- pour honey into one's ear
- put a bug in someone's ear
- rabbit ear
- rabbit ear mite
- red ear syndrome
- roasting ear
- rose ear
- round-ear
- sea-ear
- sea ear
- smile from ear to ear
- surfer's ear
- swimmer's ear
- talk out of one's ear
- talk someone's ear off
- thick ear
- tickle the ear
- tin ear
- tree ear
- turn a deaf ear
- up on one's ear
- violetear
- walls have ears
- wheatear
- white-ear
- Wildermuth ear
- Wildermuth's ear
- wood-ear
- wood ear
- you can't make a silk purse of a sow's ear
Descendants
edit- Tok Pisin: ia
Translations
editVerb
editear (third-person singular simple present ears, present participle earing, simple past and past participle eared)
- (humorous) To take in with the ears; to hear.
- 1613–1614 (date written), John Fletcher, William Shak[e]speare, The Two Noble Kinsmen: […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Waterson; […], published 1634, →OCLC, (please specify the page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
- I eared her language.
- 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
editEtymology 2
editFrom Middle English eere, er, from Old English ēar (Northumbrian dialect æhher), from Proto-West Germanic *ahaʀ, from Proto-Germanic *ahaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”).
See also West Frisian ier, Dutch aar, German Ähre; also Latin acus (“needle; husk”), Tocharian B āk (“ear, awn”), Old Church Slavonic ость (ostĭ, “wheat spike, sharp point”). More at edge.
Noun
editear (plural ears)
Synonyms
editDerived terms
editTranslations
edit
|
Verb
editear (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
|
Etymology 3
editFrom Middle English eren, from Old English erian, from Proto-West Germanic *arjan, from Proto-Germanic *arjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂erh₃- (“to plough”).
Verb
editear (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, (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, 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
Derived terms
editTranslations
edit
|
References
edit
Anagrams
editIrish
editPronunciation
editNoun
editear
- The name of the Latin-script letter r/R.
See also
editLatin
editVerb
editear
Middle English
editNoun
editear
- Alternative form of eere (“ear of grain”)
Old English
editPronunciation
editEtymology 1
editFrom Proto-West Germanic *aur, from Proto-Germanic *auraz. Akin to Old Norse aurr (“mud”).
Noun
editēar m
Declension
editStrong a-stem:
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
nominative | ēar | ēaras |
accusative | ēar | ēaras |
genitive | ēares | ēara |
dative | ēare | ēarum |
Derived terms
editEtymology 2
editFrom Proto-West Germanic *ahaʀ, from Proto-Germanic *ahaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“pointed”).
Alternative forms
editNoun
editēar n
- ear (of corn)
Declension
editStrong a-stem:
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
nominative | ēar | ēar |
accusative | ēar | ēar |
genitive | ēares | ēara |
dative | ēare | ēarum |
Descendants
editScots
editAdverb
editear (not comparable)
- Alternative form of air (“early”)
References
edit- “ear, adv., adj.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.
Scottish Gaelic
editEtymology
editFrom Old Irish an air (literally “from before”), equivalent to modern a (“from”) + air (“before”).
Noun
editear f
Derived terms
editSee also
edit(compass points)
iar-thuath | tuath | ear-thuath |
iar | ear | |
iar-dheas | deas | ear-dheas |
References
editWest Frisian
editEtymology
editFrom Old Frisian āre, from Proto-West Germanic *auʀā, from the voiced Verner alternant of Proto-Germanic *ausô, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ṓws.
Noun
editear n (plural earen, diminutive earke)
Derived terms
editFurther reading
edit- “ear (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011
Yola
editEtymology
editFrom Middle English er, from Old English ǣr, from Proto-West Germanic *airi.
Pronunciation
editPreposition
editear
References
edit- Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) 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, published 1867, page 37
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English terms with homophones
- Rhymes:English/ɪə(ɹ)
- Rhymes:English/ɪə(ɹ)/1 syllable
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Organs
- English terms with quotations
- English slang
- English terms with usage examples
- en:Architecture
- en:Mass media
- en:Baking
- en:Graph theory
- English verbs
- English humorous terms
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂eḱ-
- English intransitive verbs
- English terms with archaic senses
- Irish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Irish lemmas
- Irish nouns
- ga:Latin letter names
- Latin non-lemma forms
- Latin verb forms
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- Old English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Old English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- Old English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- Old English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Old English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Old English lemmas
- Old English nouns
- Old English masculine nouns
- Old English masculine a-stem nouns
- Old English terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European
- Old English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Old English neuter nouns
- Old English neuter a-stem nouns
- ang:Grains
- ang:Landforms
- Scots lemmas
- Scots adverbs
- Scots uncomparable adverbs
- Scottish Gaelic terms inherited from Old Irish
- Scottish Gaelic terms derived from Old Irish
- Scottish Gaelic lemmas
- Scottish Gaelic nouns
- Scottish Gaelic feminine nouns
- West Frisian terms inherited from Old Frisian
- West Frisian terms derived from Old Frisian
- West Frisian terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- West Frisian terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- West Frisian terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- West Frisian terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- West Frisian terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European
- West Frisian terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- West Frisian lemmas
- West Frisian nouns
- West Frisian neuter nouns
- Yola terms inherited from Middle English
- Yola terms derived from Middle English
- Yola terms inherited from Old English
- Yola terms derived from Old English
- Yola terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- Yola terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- Yola terms with IPA pronunciation
- Yola terms with homophones
- Yola lemmas
- Yola prepositions
- Yola terms with quotations