Jew's ear

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English

Jew's-ear (Auricularia auricula-judae)

Etymology

A mistranslation of mediaeval Latin auricula Judae (“Judas's ear”), from its shape, and its occurrence on the tree on which Judas Iscariot was supposed to have hanged himself.

Noun

Jew's ear (plural Jew's ears)

  1. A kind of edible fungus (Auricularia auricula-judae), growing on tree-trunks, formerly used for medicinal purposes.
    • 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, section XIX:
      Hither also may be referr'd those multitudes and varieties of Mushroms, such as that, call'd Jews-ears, all sorts of gray and green Mosses, &c.
    • 1979, Angela Carter, ‘The Erl-King’, The Bloody Chamber, Vintage, published 2006, page 99:
      Over the hearth hang bunches of drying mushrooms, the thin, curling kind they call jew's-ears, which have grown on the elder trees since Judas hanged himself on one; this is the kind of lore he tells me, tempting my half-belief.

Translations

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