Brag on

Posted by Smokey Stover on December 09, 2003

In Reply to: Brag on posted by Bookworm on December 09, 2003

: : : : : : : Hi! I was hoping you could tell me what this means, and where the phrase came from...thanks - Sax

: : : : : : ...and is this just a variation of 'blow your own trumpet' - which is the version I'm familiar with?

: : : : : "Blow your own horn" means brag on yourself.

: : : : I'm from the Midwestern United States and I would have said "brag *about* yourself". Is "brag on (oneself)" strictly Southern?

: : : I've heard it in Ohio, too. Goes along with "waiting on you" which always seemed to me a precarious place to stand.

: : That is how we said it in southern West Virginia. Talking about yourself (or your kids) in glowing terms was taboo. If you bragged on yourself too much, you were called a:

: : BLOW GEORGE - A braggart.

: : More about tooting your own horn:

: : BLOW YOUR OWN HORN (TRUMPET) - "Boast; extol what one sees as one's own merits. As early as 1576, Abraham Fleming, in 'A Panoplie of Epistles,' wrote: 'I will.sound the trumpet of mine own merits.' Shakespeare, in 'Much Ado About Nothing.' Has Benedick say: 'Therefore is it most expedient for the wise.to be the trumpet of his own virtues, as I am to myself.'" From "Dictionary of Clichés" by James Rogers (Wings Books, Originally New York: Facts on File Publications, 1985).

: I've heard "waiting on you" as well, but always considered it improper. A server in a restaurant is "waiting on you" . A friend who arrives early for an appointed date (for example) is "waiting *for* you. Just my humble opinion, of course...

I hope I'm not violating some copyright, but the songbook used in my elementary school had a song, sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne, that went like this: The fish, it never cackles 'bout / its million eggs or so; / The hen is quite a different bird, / One egg, and hear her crow! / We crown the hen but scorn the fish, / Which leads me to surmise: / Don't hide your light, but blow your horn, / It pays to advertise. SS