Tragus

Tragus

When I was in high school, there was a class - it must have been English related somehow, but I can't remember, because it was, uh, 20 years ago - yea, that's it, 20 years ago...where we had a section on the history of the Theah-tuh. (As in "I don't DO movies, I am of the  Thea-tuh!!") It was a great section and I loved learning about the Greeks and Romans and all that - in fact, since then, thanks to the history of popular culture, I actually care about history!! Hated it in school! But the really odd part was that we learned the parts of the ear - as in biology. My entire schooling career I avoided all the math and science I could, and then I suddenly get it in a theatre class. What the what??? At the time, of course, I (or anyone else) never thought to question it, but, while I can't remember anything about the biological make-up of the ear, I can certainly remember the befuddlement of having to learn it. Oh yea, and I remember doing poorly on the test for it. But when it comes to the ear, probably the most important thing I've learned in my life is that you should never EVER stick a hat pin in your ear even if you have an itch way down deep inside there. Just don't do it!

But anyway, this won’t be a surprise to my long-term reader, but I love that tragus (another word not in the Firefox dictionary - see how they are) comes from he-goat and also gave us 'tragedy.' Who woulda guessed that one?  Language is so bizarre.