ear

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   One of the two organs on the sides of the head that you hear with.

   She whispered the secret in my ear.

2. 2
   noun

   The ability to hear and judge sounds, especially music, well.

   She has a good ear for music and can play any tune she hears.

3. 3
   noun

   Willingness to listen to what someone says.

   The manager always has an ear for new ideas from her team.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

The ear used for hearing is an Old English word from an ancient root also represented by Latin auris. The ear of a cereal plant is a separate Old English word, ultimately related to Latin acus, aceris “husk, chaff.”

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew- Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *h₂ṓws Proto-Germanic *ausô Proto-West Germanic *auʀā Old English ēare Middle English ere English ear 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 ere, er, eir, West Frisian ear, Dutch oor, German Ohr, Swedish öra, Danish øre), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ṓws (compare Old Irish áu, Latin auris, Lithuanian ausi̇̀s, Russian у́хо (úxo), Albanian vesh, Ancient Greek οὖς (oûs), and Old A…

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External links

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