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I want to know why it is called blowing raspberries, where does it derive from & why do we still call it that? Surely there was another term for it?
JJRN1814
JJRN1814
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I want to know why it is called blowing raspberries, where does it derive from & why do we still call it that?
"Blowing raspberries" comes from the slang meaning of "raspberry", Daniel.
Dictionary.com says:
4. Slang. A derisive or contemptuous sound made by vibrating the extended tongue and the lips while exhaling.
Not sure why the raspberry got singled out for this indelicacy. [They don't deserve it.]
Dictionary.com proposes this explanation:
Obsolete raspis, raspberry + berry. Sense 4, possibly short for raspberry tart rhyming slang for fart.
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I'm not familiar with that phrase, but a google produced the following, which seems logical: In United States some common slang seems to have had its origin in Cockney rhyming slang: "raspberry," shortened from "raspberry tart" means fart; http://www.answers.com/topic/cockney-rhyming-slangOh, goodness. I got the url creator correct on the very first try.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Oh, Pat--thank you! I never knew why giving someone a raspberry was called that. Raspberry sounds much nicer!
Welcome aBoard, daniel.
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Carpal Tunnel
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yep, OED confirms the usage:
1892 Sporting Times 29 Oct. 1/2 Then I sallied forth with a careless air, And contented raspberry tart. 1959 I. & P. OPIE Lore & Lang. Schoolch. i. 9 Breaking wind was, at one time, by the process of rhyming slang, known as a ‘raspberry tart’.
and here I was all set to come up with some convoluted conflation of the word rasp (an unpleasant sound) + an ironic use of berries, as in "it's the ~".
-joe (Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem) occam
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yep, OED confirms the usage
Thanks, tsuwm.
Looks like Dictionary.com [American-Heritage] got it right.
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Carpal Tunnel
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an other term? Sure--a Bronx Cheer!
why a Bronx cheer? haven't a clue.. but the bronx does have a reputation for crude and low class. (not deserved, not deserved at all!)
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From Wikipedia.com "Blowing a Raspberry"One of the most famous uses of the Bronx Cheer is in the song "Der Fuehrer's Face", as recorded by musical comedian Spike Jones in 1942, which shows disdain for Adolf Hitler with the repeated refrain "We'll Heil! <Bronx cheer sound> Heil! <Bronx cheer> Right in Der Fuehrer's Face!"http://www.answers.com/topic/bronx-cheer
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