When adults are talking sex, money, or other adult topics in the presence of children, one might say little pitchers have big ears, meaning that they don’t want the little ones to hear. The expression has to do with beverage pitchers with handles curved like human ears, not with baseball pitchers or painted pictures. What do you say when you wish you could cover the kids’ ears or make them leave the room? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Little Pitchers Have Big Ears”
Hi, Yavoy with words.
Hello, my name is Omar Hines. I’m calling from Arlington, Texas.
Welcome, Omar.
My mom and my grandma would constantly tell me, well, not me, I guess, I would hear them say all the time that little pictures have big ears. And I kind of have an idea what it means, just the context they were using it in. I was just wondering where it might have came from.
-huh. So your family said little pictures have big ears? And how would they use that? What did they mean by that?
Like when the adults were talking and there were kids in the room, they would say, well, let’s wait a little bit later because, you know, little pictures have big ears. Yada, yada, yada.
Okay.
Very good, very good. And what did you understand that to come from? In your mind, what did you see when they said that?
I just assumed they were talking about the little kids in the room.
Yeah, yeah.
Little pictures.
Yeah, it’s interesting. The original saying is little pitchers, P-I-T-C-H-E-R-S. And it refers to pitchers like you might pour water out of. And the handles tend to be shaped like human ears. This kind of big at top and small at the bottom with a kind of half kidney bean shaped curve.
Yeah, big ears.
Yeah, big ears.
And it’s been used exactly the way that your family used it since the 1500s. So that when adults were talking about something only for adults, let’s say money or sex or war, they would just stop and say little pitchers have big ears, meaning let’s stop talking about this until the kids are out of the room or out of the way.
But over the years, it has been misunderstood as pictures, P-I-C-T-U-R-E-S, so many times that many people spend their whole lives not even knowing that the original saying and the more common version is pitchers. And also, the other reason I asked you what you saw in your mind is many people think it has something to do with, like, baseball.
Totally, totally.
Now I can tell the family. They’re saying it wrong.
Well, yeah.
They’re saying it wrong. It might be a hard habit to break, but good luck with that. And it goes way, way, way back. Centuries. So it’s a great tradition.
Take care now.
Thank you so much.
Okay, bye-bye.
Bye, Omar.
Bye-bye.
There’s a rhyme about this saying. Do you want to hear it?
Sure.
Of listening children have your fears, for little pitchers have great ears. Isn’t that the truth?
Yeah, and it’s similar in Dutch. The Dutch have the same expression.
I didn’t know that.
Oh, that’s very cool.
Yeah, it’s sort of like when you spell things out, you know. And they learn them, though.
Well, I know. I used to say, I want some CKK, because I thought that’s how you spelled cake for the longest time. I knew if they were spelling something, it had to be good, right? My little ears were just perked up.
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I’d never heard this saying before but I love it! And then, after watching A Christmas Story for the upteenth time this year, I noticed that the mom actually says in a sing-songy voice to the notoriously foul-mouthed dad “Little pitchers…” In all my viewings of the film, I’ve never caught that line before! It probably just never registered because I wasn’t familiar with the saying. I’m quite tickled with my newfound knowledge of sayings thanks to the podcast. Cheers!