From Old English 'ear-creature,' based on the universal folk belief that these insects crawl into sleeping people's ears.
A small elongated insect with a pair of terminal pincers.
From Old English 'ēarwicga,' literally 'ear-creature' or 'ear-wiggler' — from 'ēare' (ear) + 'wicga' (insect, beetle). Based on the folk belief that earwigs crawled into people's ears while they slept and burrowed into the brain. Key roots: ēare (Old English: "ear"), wicga (Old English: "insect, beetle").
The earwig is named after a myth that never dies. Every European language independently named this insect after ears: English 'earwig' (ear-creature), French 'perce-oreille' (ear-piercer), German 'Ohrwurm' (ear-worm). The belief that they burrow into brains through the ear canal is completely false — but the superstition was so universal that it's baked into the name in dozens