I am appealing to you, educated blog audience, to enlighten me. The phrase: "Little pitchers have big ears." What does it mean? I know that it's CODE for, "The kids are listening!!!" But what does it MEAN? I don't know pitchers of any size that have ears of any size.
Please, enlighten away.
5 comments:
I have always understood it to be "Little PICTURES have big ears!" as in little folks with cute faces are always listening. With the Texas accent it is hard to know for sure :)
Maybe I'm wrong too...
ok, I did a brief google search and here is what I came up with:
"LITTLE PITCHERS HAVE BIG EARS - "Children hear and understand more than you think they do. The play here is on the resemblance of the ear to the handle of a pitcher. It is an ancient saying, having been recorded by John Heywood in 1546: 'Auoyd your children, smal pitchers haue wide eares.'" From "The Dictionary of Cliches" by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985)."
I clearly remember hearing this for the first time on the way home from church one Sunday morning. My mother said it to my father who was discussing something that had happened at church--then she did a chin gesture into the back seat. My brother and sister were sitting with me in the back seat, but somehow I got the opinion--even then--that she didn't mean them at all.
Guess I was really wrong on this one!
Ruth, you are terribly enlightening, but now I only wish I could time travel to 1546 to argue w/ ol' John -- pitchers do NOT have ears!! Where was I when all of this silly talk was transpiring?
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