music to someone's ears

English

WOTD – 20 June 2023

Etymology

From music (“any interesting or pleasing sounds”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmjuːzɪk tə ˌsʌmwʌnz ˈɪəz/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmjuzɪk tə ˌsʌmwʌnz ˈɪɚz/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)z
• Hyphenation: mus‧ic to some‧one’s ears

Noun

music to someone's ears (uncountable)

1. (idiomatic) A spoken expression or a sound which is pleasing; specifically, some good news, or welcome information or remarks.
   • c. 1580 (date written), Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia, London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC:

     […] Sweete Princesse of my life (said he) what Trophees, what Triumph, what Monuments, what Historis may ever make my fame yeeld so sweete a Musicke to my eares, […]

   • c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 89, column 1:

     The time vvas once, vvhen thou vn-vrg'd vvouldſt vovv, / That neuer vvords vvere muſicke to thine eare, / That neuer obiect pleaſing in thine eye, / That neuer touch vvell vvelcome to thy hand, / That neuer meat ſvveet-ſauour'd in thy taſte, / Vnleſſe I ſpake, or look'd, or touch'd, or caru'd to thee.

   • 1653, Iz[aak] Wa[lton], chapter I, in The Compleat Angler or The Contemplative Man’s Recreation. Being a Discourse of Fish and Fishing, […], London: […] T. Maxey for Rich[ard] Marriot, […], →OCLC; reprinted as The Compleat Angler (Homo Ludens; 6), Nieuwkoop, South Holland, Netherlands: Miland Publishers, 1969, →ISBN, page 25:

     [T]he hearing of ſuch conjugal faithfulneſs, vvill be Muſick to all chaſte ears […]

   • 1838, [James Fenimore Cooper], chapter IX, in Home as Found. […], volume II, Philadelphia, Pa.: [Isaac] Lea & Blanchard, successors to [Henry Charles] Carey & Co., →OCLC, page 139:

     [T]he earnestness and passion with which the young man uttered his feelings, made music to her ears: […]

   • 1906, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “Was It Heaven? Or Hell?. Chapter II.”, in The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 69:

     People who had an ax to grind, or people who for any reason wanted to get on the soft side of him, called him The Christian—a phrase whose delicate flattery was music to his ears, and whose capital T was such an enchanting and vivid object to him that he could see it when it fell out of a person's mouth even in the dark.

   • 1909, E[rnest] W[illiam] Hornung, “An Inaugural Banquet”, in Mr. Justice Raffles, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 2:

     And he led the way from the station, stopping once to gloat over the sunset across Trafalgar Square, and again to inhale the tarry scent of the warm wood-paving, which was perfume to his nostrils as the din of its traffic was music to his ears, before we came to one of those political palaces which permit themselves to be included in the list of ordinary clubs.

   • 2006 October 15, “No Harm Meant, Honest”, in Time‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: Time Warner Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2010-11-23:

     "We should aim for a lower ambition," [Richard] Dannatt said. […] Not what you might call music to his boss's ears.

   • 2024 May 29, Howard Johnston, “Network News: NIC criticises Government's West Coast 'do nothing' policy”, in RAIL, number 1010, page 16:

     This will be music to the ears of contractors, manufacturers and suppliers, who have long argued that they cannot safeguard jobs if they have to live from year to year.

Translations

spoken expression or sound which is pleasing

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 佳音 (zh) (jiāyīn), 令人滿意的消息／令人满意的消息 (lìngrén mǎnyì de xiāoxi, literally “news that makes one satisfied”), 像音樂一樣悅耳／像音乐一样悦耳 (xiàng yīnyuè yīyàng yuè'ěr, literally “as sweet-sounding as music”)

• Czech: hudba pro něčí uši f
• Dutch: als muziek in de oren klinken
• Finnish: musiikkia korville
• French: please add this translation if you can
• Galician: música para os oídos
• German: Musik in jemandes Ohren
• Hungarian: zene füleinek
• Italian: musica per le proprie orecchie
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: му́зика за не́чии у́ши (múzika za néčii úši)
• Portuguese: música para os ouvidos de f
• Russian: бальза́м на́ душу (ru) (balʹzám ná dušu, literally “balm on to one’s soul”)
• Spanish: música para los oídos
• Swedish: musik i mina öron

good news, or welcome information or remarks — see good news