Etymologically
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listener

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈlɪsənə/, /ˈlɪsnə/[1]
  • US: /ˈlɪs(ə)nɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English listen + -er.[2][3][4] Listen goes back to Middle English listenen, from list and probably also from Old English hlysnan (“to listen, hear”),[3][5] from Proto-Germanic *hlusinon, from Proto-Indo-European *kleu- (“to hear”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who listens; an attentive hearer: 1611, in Cotgrave's French–English dictionary.[2][4] Etymonline dates it to the 1610s.[3]

Semantic evolution

In boxing slang listeners were the ears: Green's Dictionary of Slang finds it from 1817, in a London newspaper report of a fight,[6] and the OED from 1821.[2] The slang sense was still recorded in the 19th century in Scotland, Yorkshire and London.[7] In fortification a listener was a listening gallery (from 1828).[2] With radio it came to mean a person who hears a broadcast, from 1912 in Etymonline's dating and 1922 in the OED's, also as listener-in;[3][2][4] hence listenership (1938).[3]

Timeline

  • 1611 – one who listens, in Cotgrave.[2]
  • 1817 – slang, the ear.[6]
  • 1828 – fortification, a listening gallery.[2]
  • 1912 – one who hears a radio broadcast, in Etymonline's dating.[3]
  • 1922 – the same sense, in the OED's first quotation, from the Daily Mail.[2]
  • 1938 – the derivative listenership.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A person who listens, especially one who listens attentively: Her grandfather was a patient listener.[8][2][4]
  2. A person who listens to a radio broadcast: Several listeners phoned the station.[8][2]
  3. (slang) The ear.[6][2][7]

Word family

  • listenership

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  6. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  7. ^ a b 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)
  8. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster