Thursday Trivia: Sourpuss

There are a ton of dictionaries that will tell you the first known use of the word "sourpuss" was between 1935-1940. Several even go so far as to pinpoint 1937 as the beginning date.

But not even the illustrious Etymology Dictionary or the venerable old Oxford English Dictionary would expound upon where in 1937 the word was first used.

So we started hunting. And had to laugh when we found our 1937 source, thanks to a blogger in the UK who has a passion for the golden age of cartoons!

Feast your eyes on this Warner Brothers’ cartoon, entitled Porky’s Railroad - first released August 7, 1937.

Take note of what Porky says at the 3:18 timestamp:

Yep, we never would have predicted Porky Pig would be our elusive source! And we did get a chuckle out of the fact that the first sour puss on the silver screen was a cow.


From our studies, the slang word for mouth - puss, buss, pouze, and other variations  - can be found in several languages over the past two centuries. So we're sure that the word was in common use prior to this. But based on all our digging, it does indeed seem that the first use "in print" (screen print, that is) was by Warner Brothers!

And th-th-th-th-that's all folks!

________
Sources:
Mostly Merry Blogspot
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Etymology Online
My Etymology
Scotland.com