Etymology

badmouth

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Today it means: To criticize or malign, especially unfairly or spitefully. Full definition →

Mande ← vai ← Mandinka [Term?]
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The story

  1. Gullah · derived from[Term?]
  2. Mandinka · calque of[Term?]
  3. vai · calque of
  4. Mande · derived from
  5. English todaybadmouth

Calque of a Mande term, perhaps Vai [Term?] or Mandinka [Term?], which entered English via Gullah [Term?]. Compare Japanese 悪口(わるぐち) (waruguchi, “badmouthing”), which is a compound of 悪(わる) (waru, “bad, wicked”) and 口(くち) (kuchi, “mouth”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.