wet behind the ears

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

c. 1850, Pennsylvania, calque from German feucht hinter den Ohren.[1][2]

From the drying of amniotic fluid on a baby after birth, specifically a new-born farm animal, which last dries behind the ears (partly because licked dry by mother everywhere else).[2][3] German variants (still wet behind the ears, not yet dry behind the ears, green behind the ears) also borrowed.[1]

Adjective

wet behind the ears

  1. (idiomatic) Inexperienced; just beginning; immature (especially in judgment).
    • 1903, "The Boy Whose Parents Wanted Him to Be Useful," Chicago Tribune, 2 Aug., p. B2 (retrieved 5 Oct 2010):
      [They would put] their hands behind their ears and pat the top of their heads to taunt me with the fact that I was still wet behind the ears and soft on top of the head.
    • 1950, Roger Appleton, "Police to End Teen-Age Gambling: Strike at Pool Hall Hangouts," Ottawa Citizen (Canada), 13 Jan., p. 18 (retrieved 5 Oct 2010):
      Every week day, pool rooms are filled with scores of boys still "wet behind the ears" who have no business anywhere but in the classroom.
    • 1991, Dick Thompson, "The Man with the Plan," Time, 15 July:
      Now, here was the freshly minted FDA commissioner, still wet behind the ears at 39.
    • 2004, Jarrett Bell, "Bengals' Kitna 'classy' about losing job to Palmer," USA Today, 8 Sept. (retrieved 5 Oct 2010):
      "These young whippersnappers are still wet behind the ears."

Usage notes
  • This expression is usually hyphenated when placed before the noun it modifies.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Translations

References
  1. "Green behind the ears": the untold story, Ben Zimmer, Language Log, October 15, 2008
  2. Americanisms, Maximilian Schele de Vere, 1872, pp. 146–147: “the German fancifully notices that newly-born animals are apt to be licked dry promptly everywhere except behind the ears, and hence their colloquial phrase: ‘The youngster is not dry yet behind his ears.’ The expression having become familiar to American ear in Pennsylvania first, has from thence spread to other States also.”
  3. “a newly born animal, as a colt or a calf, on which the last spot to become dry after birth is the little depression behind either ear,” Charles Earle Funk, 1948, A Hog On Ice.
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