- Cosmopolitan used this term to describe a song that gets stuck in your head, and rated the 5 most common ones.
ear worm
noun; compounding
a song or any catchy sample of audio that repeats itself in someone's mind. Worms and these songs are related in that they are insignificant but highly undesirable things, and since everyone is familiar with a song that gets stuck in your head, it made sense to have a shorter phrase to describe it. That happens with words that are quite common. If this catches on, I wouldn't be surprised if it became earworm in a few months.
Etymology : sensory compounding
Source : Cosmopolitan
Last modified: 10 June 2008