Hi TheParser,
Thank you for your kindness.
You may rely upon it that the reading your posts is one of the scanty pleasures I found at the present forum.
For all that I could not help expressing my little dissent from some your statements above.
I may be wrong, but I think that there may be a (little?) difference between
"prick up one's ears" and "I'm all ears."
According to my (good) dictionary, "prick up one's ears" = to suddenly become attentive.
That’s right enough.
but
Please see my wording in my original post above!
prick up one’s ears = be all ears
Here is a brief excerpt from the popular book “A Tale of Two Cities” by Ch. Dickens:
The passenger booked by this history, was on the coach-step, getting in; the two other passengers were close behind him, and about to follow. He remained on the step, half in the coach and half out of; they remained in the road below him. They all looked from the coachman to the guard, and from the guard to the coachman, and listened. The coachman looked back and the guard looked back, and even the emphatic leader pricked up his ears and looked back, without contradicting.
In my humble opinion, the expression in question is a coinage of the world famous Ch= Dickens. To the best of my knowledge it gives us a broad hint that the emphatic leader “sharpened his hearing suddenly”. There is only one likely interpretation of suchlike action in my native thousand years old language, namely “be all ears” (transform, turn into hearing). It is yours “become attentive suddenly”. Similar figurative interpretation of “sharpen something” you may see below:
get one’s teeth ready, whet one’s appetite for a good meal
Another minor point that you may already know about. If you do not, I think that
it may interest you, for you are certainly a conscientious student of English
vocabulary:
The noun "p - - - - " is a vulgar word…
I know, we have to speak (write) with deliberation… but
Would you try to put yourself in the poor person’s shoes who has read the following two excerpts of famous English texts?
"And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord I am Jesus whom thou persecute: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do."
Robert: Well, look here, Caroline, it’s not good kicking against the pricks. We’ve got to marry.
Caroline (energetically): I’m handed if we do. (W. S. Maugham, “The Unattained”)
Probably, if I really were a well-bred American I could hardly restrain my laughter reading mentioned above texts?
I apologize to you for my broken and obscure English.
V.