poor mouth - From Ulster to America
Source: From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English
Author: Michael Montgomery
Comments: From Ulster to America recounts the lasting impact eighteenth-century settlers from Ulster have made on the development of the English language of the United States. The book documents over 500 vocabulary items contributed to American English by these ‘Scotch-Irish’ settlers. Each ‘shared’ term with its meaning is authenticated by quotations from both sides of the Atlantic. This searchable online version of his book takes its text from the dictionary part of the second edition published by the Ullans Press in 2017.
poor mouth n phr A person who pleads poverty or seeks pity for his/her misfortune. Hence vb (also make a poor mouth, talk poor mouth, etc. vb phr) To complain or seek pity for one’s misfortune, usually in an affected or exaggerated way; to plead poverty. [< Irish béal bocht ‘continual complaint of poverty’ or Scottish Gaelic beul-bochd ‘pleading of poverty’; oed to make a poor mouth (at mouth n 20k) ‘to plead poverty, to complain’ regional (Scotland and U.S.) and Irish English; dare poor mouth n phr in vb phr to make poor mouth, etc. ‘to complain (usually in an exaggerated way) of poverty or other misfortune’ chiefly Midland, South]
Ulst.:
1880 Patterson Antrim/Down Glossary 79 make a poor mouth = to complain of troubles or poverty, and to make the most of these, for the purpose of exciting pity.
1991 O’Kane You Don’t Say 107-08 = a person who proclaims poverty as his lot and makes out that times are bad with him. Can be applied to anyone who is stingy or avoids paying their share on the ground that money is tight, too many commitments, fallen on hard times, and so on.
U.S.:
1892 Fruit Kentucky Words 231 to put up a po’ mouth = to plead poverty.
1930 Shoemaker 1300 Penn Words 46 poor-mouth = to discant on one’s poverty.
1952 Wilson Folk Speech NC 578 talk poor mouth = to plead poverty.
Purchase From Ulster to America
The second, revised edition of Michael Montgomery’s From Ulster to America is now available here:
From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English (Europe)
From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English (North America)