耳熟能详
- Literal
- ear accustomed, able to detail
- Figurative
- To have heard something so often that you know it by heart and can tell it in detail; the stress is on familiarity, not on fame.
Where does 耳熟能详 come from?
It comes from the 《泷冈阡表》, the text the writer Ouyang Xiu (Song dynasty) composed for his father's grave at Longgang. His father died when he was very small, so what he knew of him came from his mother. Ouyang Xiu records that she could repeat in detail what her husband used to say when teaching the young people of the family, because she had heard it so many times (吾耳熟焉，故能详也). The idiom grew out of that line. Today it is said of songs, stories or advice one knows from hearing them over and over; 家喻户晓 stresses that everyone knows something, and 脍炙人口 that a work is loved and gladly quoted.
Source (出处): 欧阳修《泷冈阡表》
How is 耳熟能详 used? Two examples
- 爷爷当兵时的故事讲了无数遍，全家人都耳熟能详，连细节都背得出来。
Grandpa has told his army stories so many times that the whole family knows them by heart, down to the last detail.
- 老师讲的那些道理我们早就耳熟能详，可真正做到的人不多。
We've heard the teacher's advice so often we could recite it, but few of us actually follow it.
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