Earwig

Posted by ESC August 22, 2003In reply to Let me "put a bug in your ear" posted by Deanie P. Terminie-Ros on August 20, 2003

My boss is a trivia lover and it would really make his day (and impress him of course) if you could tell me where the phrase "put a bug in your ear" derives from.

PUT A BUG IN YOUR EAR - "put a bug (or flea) in (someone's) ear, put a bug (or bee) in (someone's) bonnet, to suggest, hint, reveal, around 1900. This seems to be a later version of to 'earwig.'" ".earwig, to pester insinuate, to influence with words, from the earwig insect (first recorded in English in 1000) which was thought to enter the head through the ear." From Listening to America: An Illustrated History of Words and Phrases from Our Lively and Splendid Past by Stuart Berg Flexner (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1982).