According to one superstition that goes back to ancient Roman times, when your ears are burning you are subconsciously aware of being talked about or criticised. The historian Pliny the Elder believed that if a person’s right ear burns they are being praised, but a burning left ear indicates that they are the subject of evil intent. Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Dickens, among others, all refer to burning ears in their literature.

Being naïve or inexperienced is to be wet behind the ears. This expression refers to a baby animal so recently born it is still wet in the small depression behind each ear, the last place to become dry.

When you do something without guidelines, you are said to play it by ear. This comes from musicians who had very little formal training but were able to recreate music by listening to it.

If you begin to listen attentively you prick up your ears. This one derives from the ability of horses and dogs to lift their ears to listen more clearly when they hear a strange sound. If something is earmarked it is tagged for future recognition or set aside for a special purpose. This word comes from the old practice of notching the ears of cattle and sheep for identification.

To eavesdrop is to listen in on someone else’s conversation. The word first appeared in writing more than 500 years ago. The eaves of a roof that extend past the outside walls would drip when it rained, leaving a dry space between the wall and the roof. This was a great spot to stand and secretly listen in on private conversations.

If you listen eagerly, you can be all ears, you may have influence if you have someone’s ear, and if information goes in one ear and out the other you have heard but quickly forgotten. To be out on your ear is to be shamefully dismissed and to be up to your ears in something (which I often am) is to be very busy. To be cloth-eared is to be unable or unwilling to hear and if something falls on deaf ears it is deliberately ignored.

While writing this column I found myself singing that Beatles classic – “Lend me your ears and I’ll sing you a song and I’ll try not to sing out of key. Oh, I’ll get by with a little help from my friends…”. Sing along – it’s sure to put a smile on your face from ear to ear.

Happy puzzling!