“Little Pitchers Have Big Ears” Meaning

Hi there, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Pat. I’m calling from Aubrey, Texas.

Well, welcome to the show, Pat. What can we do for you?

I have been wondering about an expression my mother used when I was a kid. And she would say this whenever adults were talking about adult things, and I might happen to be in the room. And she would say to her friends, be careful, little pitchers have big ears.

So I always knew what it meant. You know, I always knew it meant, okay, everybody, don’t talk about this, you know, sister’s listening, Patty’s listening. But, you know, in my little mind, I would think, okay, what is she talking about?

The women, the people in my family pronounce pitcher like a pitcher of water. They pronounce it the same way as picture, like a picture of something. And so I would try to think, well, is it a water pitcher with big ears or it is a picture of me with big ears? So I don’t know which it was. And I don’t know what in the heck expression does that mean?

When you heard it, you knew that things could not be discussed in front of the kids, right?

Right. So I did know that it meant that. I just don’t know where it comes from, if anybody else says that.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Lots of people say it. For centuries, well back into the 1500s, as a matter of fact.

Oh, really?

Yeah, it’s widespread. And it has to do with the visual of a pitcher. Like you might put water in, and it’s got this big handle, the shape roughly of a human ear. And it’s a comparison of the big ear on the pitcher to the big ears on the kids, meaning the kids are listening very carefully.

Because even my son does. I did this when I was a kid. I would always listen. I would listen at the heater vents. I would. Absolutely. Mom, sorry if you’re listening. You’re kicking it out. But yeah, because this is how we learn about the adult world by listening to the adults and figuring things out from what they let slip.

But anyway, so yeah, imagine a pitcher with a big handle, roughly the shape of a human ear. Now, some people, when they hear this and they know that it’s meant the pouring receptacle, they think of the emptiness of the pitcher and they think of it as just waiting to be filled up with something that will later be poured out again.

And that’s the second part of it, the idea that the kids aren’t only hearing with their big ears, but they’re going to pour it back out later to somebody else’s ear. It’s coming back.

Yeah. -huh. Yeah. They’re going to tell their cousins the next time they’re with the family.

Exactly. Children hearing things is not a dead end. There is a loop there. It moves forward and goes on.

That’s right. That’s how you learn secret stuff. It’s also how you learn to spell. I remember my mother used to ask my older brothers if they wanted some C-A-K-E. And I would say, I want some C-K-K. Because I knew it was something good, whatever it was. And they were not going to let little Martha Ann have any?

What?

Pat, I got to tell you, there’s another expression which we don’t use much anymore, but you can find it in collections of sayings and proverbs and the like. And it’s, great talkers are like broken pitchers. Everything runs out of them. And again, it’s the idea of this receptacle that just can’t hold a thing in. Can’t do the job of keeping something in that it should be keeping in.

So there you go.

Yeah, thank you for that. I love it. The mystery is solved. Thanks for calling, Pat. Call us again sometime.

Oh, you’re welcome. Thank you. Take care. Glad to help. Bye-bye.

There’s an Australian variant, little rabbits have big ears.

Oh, that’s true. Which is evocative, right? -huh. But it doesn’t have that extra little something about what goes in also comes out.

Yeah, it’s a whole different idea, isn’t it? Just these really cute little things that also happen to have these ears that hear everything. The wolf radar or whatever. Right?

Call us with your language question, 877-929-9673, or send your emails to words@waywordradio.org.