Bronx Cheer

Meaning:

   A sound of contempt or derision, made by blowing through closed lips, usually

   with the tongue protruding.

 

Background:

   The Bronx is a borough of New York City, named after the 17th century Jonas

   Bronck, who was the first recorded European settler in the area.

 

   `Bronx cheer' originated as a slang term in the USA in the early years of the

   20th century and began appearing in newspapers from around 1920. The earliest

   example that I can find is in a newspaper report of an [American] football

   game between Princeton and Stagg's universities, written by no less a

   luminary that the US author Damon Runyon, in the Bridgeport Telegram, October

   1921:

 

     ...if Chicago lose the east will grin and give western football the jolly

     old Bronx cheer.

 

   Many Americans believe that the birthplace of the phrase `Bronx cheer' was

   The New York Yankees stadium. Runyon's piece disproves that, as the stadium

   wasn't built until 1923, after the phrase was already in use. Other sources,

   also unsubstantiated, suggest Bronx theatres to be the origin.

 

   At that date England and America were two countries separated by a common

   language (as George Bernard Shaw never said) and in England a report like the

   one above would have surely substituted the word `raspberry'. `Bronx cheer'

   was included in an English-American Dictionary column that was printed in the

   English newspaper The Daily Mail in 1924, which was part of the Mail's

   regular attempts to keep their readers up to date with Americanisms, but the

   phrase never established itself over here.

 

   `Blowing a raspberry' is essentially the same action as making a Bronx cheer.

   That expression is a little earlier and was coined at the end of the 19th

   century. It also has a popularly believed derivation, which may or may not be

   true. It is generally thought that the expression is a shortened version of

   the Cockney rhyming slang `raspberry tart' and, as the sound is an imitation

   of flatulence, I'll leave it to you to decide what `tart' is supposed to

   rhyme with. Other explanations are that a raspberry comes from the shape of

   the lips when making the sound, or simply that it is a rasping sound.

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

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The Bronx Cheer I remember was mouthed by Barney, the feisty 3- or 4-year-old in

the movie About A Boy at around 4:12 and in Will's words "the AntiChrist" (after

being told "Say hello to Will, Barney" and after Will said "Hello, Barney. How

are you?")