"Earworm"

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>         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.

I had forgotten the previous thread (or never read it), stupid me. The
above dates don't seem decisive (both 1987) but I agree German-to-English
is more likely anyway.

My little Harrap's Concise German dictionary shows the "Ohrwurm" in
question; this book is dated 1982, but I have a 1994 printing so I can't be
entirely sure. The Grimm Bros. on-line dictionary does not show it (surprise!).

-- Doug Wilson