"Earworm"

[Baker, John]

        Does anyone know how old the figurative "Ohrwurm" is in German?  As I've posted before, the earliest found for "earworm" so far in English is in the 9/18/1987 issue of Newsday, quoting alto saxophonist Bobby Watson:

        >>"I like to create little earworms," he says. "That way people who don't know the technical side of the music will start humming."<<

        Word Spy has posted a 12/22/1987 article from The Whole Earth Review, http://www.wordspy.com/words/earworm.asp, talking about Ohrwurms in the figurative sense, so it seems unlikely that the English term could have predated the German term.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of Douglas G. Wilson
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2005 8:41 PM
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Subject: Re: "Earworm"


German "Ohrwurm" is basically equivalent to English "earwig", I guess:
according to legend the bug crawls into one's ear and cannot be removed, I
think. So it would appear likely that the German word was used figuratively
for "catchy tune" and then crudely 'translated' into English as "earworm"
in spite of the existence of the 'proper' translation "earwig" and in spite
of the existence of another (inappropriate) English word "earworm". However
it is also possible that the loan went the other way, with English
"earworm" coined by analogy with "computer worm" (something which sneaks
into one's computer/software).

I find the figurative "Ohrwurm" (German) at Google Groups from 1991, the
appropriate English "earworm" from 1993.

-- Doug Wilson