mouth music

English

Etymology

Calque of Scottish Gaelic puirt à beul (“tunes from a mouth”).

Noun

mouth music (uncountable)

1. The vocal imitation of instrumental music.
   • 1877, Angus Macleod (speaker), “The Reciters' Lament, and Their Story”, in Alexander Carmichael, transl., edited by W.Y. Evans-Wentz, The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries‎^[1], →ISBN, page 115:

     She herself or one of the other crofter women of the townland would sing to us the mouth music.

   • 1996, George Odam with Joan Arnold and Alison Ley, Sounds of Music (Teacher's Book)‎^[2], →ISBN, page 61:

     ‘Mouth music’ evolved in those parts of the country where poor people had no instruments but still wanted to dance.

   • 2002, Charles Keil, Angeliki V. Keil, “Foreword”, in Bright Balkan Morning: Romani Lives & the Power of Music in Greek Macedonia‎^[3], →ISBN, page xxiii:

     Listening to flamenco, or to English Gypsy or Russian Gypsy folk song, or to the “babba-deep-babbaa-doop” mouth music of the Hungarian Roma, one would be hard put to identify a commonality.

2. Words (or sometimes actions) that sound good but do not mean anything.
   • 1982, Jess Lair, Ain't I a Wonder and Ain't You a Wonder Too, page 71:

     I lived both with no belief in a higher power and I lived with a so-called religious belief in a higher power that was purely a dead religion. It was just mouth music.

   • 1986, California Lawyer - Volume 6, page 51:

     Saying it applies to the civil service is just mouth music from people out to collect money from civil service employees.

   • 2018, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, Julia:

     Julia made no reply to that remark; she was enchanted with him, as always, for the things he said, so unexpected, so very much there that she felt what he said was specifically for her, and not just mouth-music, like other grown-ups.

   • 2022, Val McDermid, 1979, page 24:

     Danny was pretty sure it was only mouth music, just as he was certain that Joseph only stayed under his parents' roof becausee it was cheaper than having a place of his own.

3. (slang) Oral sex.
   • 1977, Charles Silverstein, Edmund White, The Joy of Gay Sex, New York: Crown Publishers, →ISBN, page 42:

     At some point in almost every gay encounter someone will play a little mouth music.

Related terms

• puirt a beul

Further reading

• Jonathon Green (2024) “mouth music n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang