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
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.
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.
Oh, Pat--thank you! I never knew why giving someone a raspberry was called that. Raspberry sounds much nicer!
Welcome aBoard, daniel.
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
yep, OED confirms the usage
Thanks, tsuwm.
Looks like Dictionary.com [American-Heritage] got it right.
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!)