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Why is raspberry used as a name for an insulting sound?
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Slang
Horace Walpole, detail of an oil painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1757; in the City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, England.
The term "raspberry," when used to describe an insulting sound of contempt, originates from rhyming slang.12
In this linguistic context, "raspberry" is a shortened form of the phrase "raspberry tart," which serves as a rhyming euphemism for "fart". The sound itselfāproduced by protruding the tongue between the lips and forcibly expelling air to create a vibrationāis also commonly referred to as a Bronx cheer.1234