tragus

I think you may be right. :-)

Safe unless I get a hankering for cod wrap and stop by Silly's at the same time you do! Look for the woman staring surreptitiously at ears.

Come to think of it, staring surreptitiously is probably akin to jumbo shrimp.

Yea, you should be safe. ;-)

*glad slumry won't be checking out my ears any time soon, since we live on opposite sides of the country* ;-)

Oh dear, now I will be compelled to go about observing tragi to see if they are hairy. A little scientific survey. ;-)

Odd, sionnach, that it derives from the same root as tragic. Makes a Wordie wonder.... ;-)

But this doesn't mean "hairy ear," and it doesn't refer only to people with hairy ears. Whether people with hairy ears look like goats or not is irrelevant. The word refers to a part outside your ear that everyone has, even people without hairy traguses (tragi?). Why that has anything to do with goats is beyond me. But very interesting, so thanks for posting the etymology. I say again... ?!?!

Joke, seanahan. Joke. :-)

Um, goats have very hairy ears. People with hairy ears look like goats. Seems like a pretty straight forward explanation.

this word is tragic

?!?! too! How they got from goat to hairy part of the ear, I don't want to know.

?!?!

The etymology is even more bizarre:

New Latin, from Greek tragos, goat, hairy part of the ear.

Wow. This is a weird word that doesn't sound at all like its meaning. Meatus is even weirder and sounds even less like its meaning!

Ditto, trivet.

Gross, y'all!

Meatus just made the hate list.

Blecch! An even more ghastly image!

sounds like a meat foetus.

If God didn't want us to eat fetuses, why are they made out of meat?

Eeew. Meatus. Doesn't it sound like it's supposed to be a big hunk of steak?

cool. and cause of this word, I found meatus!

that little flap of cartilage at the front of the opening of your ear