Crosswords4 mins ago
grave
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.There is a superstition that says if someone walks over the patch of ground where you will eventually be buried, it sends a shiver down your spine, because the superstition states that you are psychically linked to this piece of land.
A variation of this notion is that you shiver when a goose walks over the ground that will be your grave - this has given rise to the term 'to goose someone' which is the shiver reaction you get if you run your finger lightly down someone's spine when they are not expecting it.
The following (modified) sentence appears in 'Macbeth' ..."By the tingling of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes." (It's not 'tingling' in Shakespeare's version, but I'm sure AnswerBank won't allow me to use the actual word. If you need a clue, it's what you feel if you stick a needle into your finger.)
The idea that 'burning' ears means someone somewhere is talking about you is just another illustration of the same idea. The notion presumably is that you are desperately anxious to hear what they're actually saying.
An itchy palm supposedly means money is coming your way.
As you say, Bpuk, there's also the idea that, if you shiver, it means someone is walking over your eventual grave-site.
There are many other similar beliefs, all of them examples of superstitious hangovers from the days of witchcraft/angels etc, when people believed they were constantly being offered supernatural signs and warnings of distant or future events. In other words, it basically doesn't 'mean' anything at all.