earring

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English erering,^[2][3] inherited from Old English ēarhring,^[2][3][4][5] formed from Old English ēare (“ear”) + hring (“ring”),^[2][5] the words that became ear and ring.^[2][3][6] The OED counts it as inherited from Germanic, with the same formation in Middle Dutch oorrinc, Dutch oorring, Old Saxon ōrhring, Middle Low German ōrrinc, Old High German ōrring, Middle High German ōrrinc and German Ohrring.^[7] It adds that an Old Church Slavonic loanword for "earring" probably implies an unattested Gothic cognate.^[7] Etymonline lists the word under the spelling “ear-ring”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A ring, often of gold, passed through a hole in the earlobe and worn as an ornament: in the Old English translation of Alexander's Letter to Aristotle.^[7] Dictionary.com dates the word to before 1000 and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to before the 12th century.^[3][2] Old English also has "Nymaþ gyldene eár-hringas" (take off the golden earrings) in Exodus 32:2,^[4] and it had another word, ēarspinl.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant a ring and widened to any piece of jewellery worn on the ear,^[7][5] including clips and screws for an unpierced lobe.^[2] Pendant kinds were at first called ear-drops (1720).^[5] Etymonline, drawing on the Dictionary of English Folklore, says that Romanized Britons and Anglo-Saxons wore earrings, that their use declined across Europe in the Middle Ages, and that they came back to England in the 16th century, after the 17th worn there nearly always by women.^[5] Johnson (1755) accordingly calls it an "ornament of a woman's ear".^[6] From 1866 the name was also given in Lincolnshire to a fuchsia, in full earring flower.^[7]

Timeline

• Old English – a ring worn through the earlobe; later any ornament worn on the ear.^[7][5]
• 1866 – a fuchsia, at first in Lincolnshire.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A piece of jewellery worn on the earlobe or another part of the ear, fixed through a piercing or by a clip or screw: She lost one silver earring on the train.^[2][7][6]
2. (rare) A fuchsia, Fuchsia magellanica.^[7]

Word family

• earringed

Related words

• ear
• ring

Usage notes

According to the Dictionary of English Folklore, quoted by Etymonline, Gypsies and sailors long had a near monopoly on male earrings, and it was said that a sailor's earring would save him from drowning or pay for a Christian burial if he washed ashore.^[5] A word of the same spelling in Norfolk dialect meant corn or hay gathered into a row.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)