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?")
