earwax

• ear wax, ear-wax

From Middle English erewax, a compound of ere +‎ wax. Equivalent to ear +‎ wax.

earwax (uncountable)

1. (medicine, pathology) A waxy substance secreted by the ear.
   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. Excellently Expressing the Beginning of their Loues, with the Conceited Wooing of Pandarus, Prince of Licia‎, London: Imprinted by G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, and are to be sold at the spred Eagle in Paules Church-yeard, ouer against the great North doore, published 1609, →OCLC, act V, scene 1:

     Her's Agamemnon, an honeſt fellow inough and one that loues quailes, but hee has not ſo much braine as eare-wax, […]

• cerumen (technical), wax

• earwax impaction