BAD-MOUTH

transitive verb Also written badmouth (People and Society) In US slang (especially among Blacks): to abuse (someone) verbally; to put down or 'rubbish' (a person or thing), especially by malicious gossip. Etymology: The verb comes from the Black slang expression bad mouth (a literal translation of similar expressions in a number of African and West Indian languages), which originally meant 'a curse or spell'. History and Usage: The earliest use of bad-mouth as a verb in print is an isolated wartime use by James Thurber in 1941, although it was almost certainly in spoken use before this. By the sixties it had become fairly common in US Black English, but it was not until the late seventies that it acquired any currency in British slang. In the eighties it started to appear in respectable journalistic sources without quotation marks or any other sign of slang status. The corresponding verbal noun bad-mouthing is also common. The dealing fraternity and the auctioneers, despite the fact that they never cease bad-mouthing each other, are mutually dependent. The Times 16 Nov. 1981, p. 10 Jo-Anne was a bitter enemy who could be relied on to bad-mouth her at every opportunity. Pat Booth Palm Beach (1986), p. 180