Earwig

Forms: 1, 2 earwicga, (1 eorwicga), 5 erwyge, ȝerwigge, erewygge, 6 erwygge, (herewigge), 6–7 earwigge, 7 earwick, earewigg. 6– earwig. [OE. éarwicga, f. éar-e, EAR sb.¹ + OE. wicga earwig; cf. WIGGLE v. to wriggle. See also ARWYGYLL. Cf. Fr. perce-oreille, Ger. ohr-wurm.]

  1.  An insect, Forficula auricularia, so called from the notion that it penetrates into the head through the ear.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 122. Blatta, eorwicga.

c. 1000.  Sax. Leechd., II. 44. Wiþ earwicgan, ʓenim þæt micle greate windel streaw twyecʓe … ceop on þæt eare he bið of sona.

14[?].  Voc. Harl. MS. 1002, in Promp. Parv., 143, note. Auriolus, a ȝerwigge.

c. 1450.  MS. Sloane 4. 80, in N. & Q., III. VI. 4. Y^e blacke flye, y^e erwyge, y^e old waspys.

1547.  Salesbury, Welsh Dict., Pryf klustioc, an erwygge.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, II. 300. If an earewig … be gotten into the eare … spit into the same, and it will come forth anone.

a. 1643.  W. Cartwright, Poems (1651) (N.). I’m afraid ’Tis with one worm, one earwick overlaid.

1727.  Swift, To Young Lady. To fall into fits at the sight of a spider, an earwig or a frog.

a. 1845.  Hood, Tale of Trumpet, ix. No verbal message was worth a pin, Though you hired an earwig to carry it in!

  ¶ Perhaps with a pun on heretic.

1563.  Foxe, A. & M. (1631), III. xii. 988/2. He was once at the burning of an Herewigge (for so hee termed it) at Uxbridge.

  † 2.  fig. An ear whisperer, flatterer, parasite.

1633.  Ford, Broken H., II. i. C 3 b. That gawdy Eare-wrig, or my Lord, your Patron, Whose pensioner you are.

1688.  Pol. Ballads (1860), I. 260. Court earwigs banish from your ears.

1758.  Herald, II. 46. The earwigs of royalty … will not hereafter be suffered to mislead majesty, by whispering [etc.].

  3.  Comb., as † earwig-brain, one who has a ‘maggot’ or craze in his brain.

1599.  Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, 74. Eight score more galliarde crosse-poynts, and kickshiwinshes of giddy eare-wig brains.