ear trumpetn.
/ˈɪə trʌmpɪt/, U.S. /ˈɪ(ə)r ˌtrəmpət/ Now historical.
A trumpet-shaped device designed to be held to the ear in order to assist hearing.
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the world > health and disease > healing > audiology or audiometry > [noun] > aids to defective hearing
trunk1546
otacousticon1615
otacoustic1617
ear-spectacle1626
sarbacane1644
acoustic1659
acousticon1660
hearing-trumpet1725
ear trumpet1731
trumpet1774
otophone1839
auricle1864
audiphone1880
osteophone1892
microphonograph1897
hearing aid1922
deaf-aid1934
1731 T. Dale tr. N. Regnault Philos. Conversat. II. xiii. 240 Those, in whom this Part is defective, supply it at least in some measure by an Ear-trumpet [Fr. cornet].
1776 C. Burney Gen. Hist. Music I. 184 Perhaps Asclepiades was the inventor of the Acousticon, or ear-trumpet.
1823 Ld. Byron Don Juan: Canto X xxxiv. 70 The ear-trumpet of my good old aunt.
1859 Harper's Mag. Feb. 420/1 A certain artist friend of mine..one day had a visit from a well-known writer who was deaf—so much so as to be obliged to use an ear-trumpet.
1951 S. J. Perelman Let. 26 Oct. in Don't tread on Me (1987) 117 Some old windbag with an ear-trumpet..is coming out here tomorrow noon to interview me.
1989 I. Taylor George Eliot (1990) vi. 65 Miss Martineau..had the complication of severe deafness which necessitated her carrying round an ungainly ear-trumpet.
2013 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 7 Mar. 36/1 For the museum visitor, they [sc. catalogs] have become as antiquated and burdensome as an ear trumpet.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2015; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1731