APAD: Cloth ears

Meaning:

   `Cloth ears' is a rebuke directed at a person who fails to hear something

   that is said to them. The expression is usually delivered with disparaging or

   humorous tone - "Oi, cloth ears, can't you hear me?"

 

Background:

   The term `cloth ears' originated in the weaving mills of northern England in

   the early part of the 20th century.

 

   When the spinning and weaving of wool and cotton became industrialised during

   the Industrial Revolution the trade was centred on the counties of Lancashire

   and Yorkshire. Many of the large mills that were built in the 1800s are still

   standing and some are complete with long rows of machinery, preserved as

   museums.

 

   The noise in a spinning and weaving mill was tremendous. As one former cloth

   mill worker explained:

 

     "You was overwhelmed at the roar of noise, and for about three days all you

     could hear was the roar in your ears. But after that you became part and

     parcel of it and you could talk quite normally. Although you didn't realise

     it, you were doing a lot of lip reading."

 

   The name given to the deafness that mill workers were commonly afflicted with

   was `cloth ears'. The equivalent condition that workers in nearby steel mills

   developed was `boilermaker's deafness', which is still the medical name for

   noise induced deafness.

 

   Workers must have been subject to `cloth ears' since the factories were

   built, but the first record of the phrase in print is from the start of the

   20th century, in Compton Mackenzie's 1912 novel Carnival:

 

     "I wish you'd listen. Have you got cloth ears?"

 

   Mackenzie's story is set in London, so `cloth ears' must have migrated south

   by 1912 and it is reasonable to assume that it was in colloquial use in the

   north of England prior to that date. So far, I haven't been able to find an

   earlier citation of it.

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

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One more useful term to condemn capitalism with.

 

My first thought before reading the background of the phrase, however, was about

my immigration. After studying English many years and passing tests with flying

colors, I had a hard time grasping what the professors said in a Canadian

university. I might as well have cloth ears.