10.29.08
Mockery within my grrr-rasp
How poetically satisfying to razz the misspelling of raspberry.
I spotted this concession item list on my recent BBQ travels (note the tea flavor at the top):
I’m not going to simply make fun of the misspelling. I’m going to razz it. Because razz is ultimately a shortening of raspberry, as in “giving misspellers the raspberry,” which is in turn a shortening of “raspberry tart,” rhyming slang for fart. A raspberry tart is a description of the mocking fart sound you create by sticking your tongue out between otherwise closed lips and blowing.
So, raspberries to rasberry tea . . . though as we consider the bodily sources of words, I wonder. Is a side benefit of drinking lots of rasberry tea avoiding the need to P?
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and 
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Drew said,
October 29, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Cute. Is the origin of the “raspberry” (as in the noise you can make with your mouth) really rhyming slang for “raspberry tart”? I’ve always wondered that and have never looked it up.
Also, this post coincides with my recent discovery of the term “cranberry morpheme,” which I find fascinating and of which “rasp-” is one.
Bill Brohaugh said,
October 30, 2008 at 6:15 am
Indeed, all evidence is that “raspberry” is Cockney rhyming slang. (It’s also rhyming slang for “nipple”–from “raspberry ripple.”)
I love the term “cranberry morpheme” and not just because it sounds like a flavored designer drug from Ocean Spray. It’s more poetic and descriptive than “fossil.”
For a fun post on cranberry morphemes, check out The Name Inspector: http://www.thenameinspector.com/doing-the-crandango/