Were your ears burning?

  • Were your ears burning? is an everyday expression referring to the fact that the person concerned was being talked about in their absence.
    • Pliny the Elder wrote in Natural History, Book XXVIII, Chap. V, that people sensed a tingling in the ears if they were being talked about in their absence. It was also mentioned by Plautus.
    • Both suggested the person felt a tingling in the left ear if the talk was of harmful intent, and in the right ear if the person was being praised.
    • English literature since Chaucer (c.1343-1400 CE) has mentioned burning ears.
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