June 4, 1996

earring

Just what is an earring, anyway? It's not always a ring, and it's not even for the ear anymore--I see things all the time about people wearing earrings in their nose, or eyebrow. Shouldn't they be called an ear-stud or ear-ornament when worn in the ear, and a nose-ring (or whatever) when worn somewhere else?

Originally, an earring was a ring worn in the earlobe. The use of the word for 'any ornament worn in or dangling from the earlobe' is very well established, though, and not worth losing much sleep over. (If it's a big concern, you could say "a pendant in the ear" or "a diamond stud in your ear.") But recent fashions have given new concerns. What about a ring that pierces the outer part of the ear, not the lobe? It's probably safe to call that an earring too, and we'll be updating the dictionary accordingly at this entry.

It's when the ornament is worn somewhere else that it gets tricky. The word nose-ring is an established word: even John Keats used it. ("His turban wreath'd of gold....Mustachios, ear-ring, nose-ring, and his saber keen.") But earring is still a much more familiar word, and people often prefer it, especially since everyone knows "earring" can refer to a stud, but "nose-ring" still seems like it should be a ring. When the ornament is worn elsewhere, you can specify the what and the where--"a ring in his eyebrow," "a stud in her lip"--or just the where, using "earring" since it's familiar: "an earring in the navel." (By comparison, the word bracelet etymologically refers to the arm, but we still say "ankle bracelet" without much concern.) For now, body-piercing isn't common enough that individual pieces of jewelry have well-known names, which is why "eyebrow-ring" sounds so clunky, but if the trend continues, there will be new, popular vocabulary to go along with it.

The word earring has been in the language since the Old English period. Nose-ring dates from the eighteenth century.