I was wondering what the meaning and/or origin of the insult “mouth breather” was.
Its only been recently that I have heard this phrase, and I must confess to only knowing its an insult based on the context.
I myself am a “mouth breather” . . . literally. Having had bad asmatha and allergies since I was a kid I got into the habit at an early age of taking in oxygen primarily through my mouth. Does this say something bad about me ? Perhaps it does, as *I don’t get it *!
Little help . . .
I sympathize and empathize with you. During certain seasons I sometime am forced to inhale and exhale orally, and I suppose that is the case for most people during bad colds. I once heard a guy who really had a problem call a radio doctor about his problems with clearing his sinuses in the morning and the idiot doctor jeered " You’re a mouthbreather! Get out of here! Get this guy off the line!" I was mistified by such behavior in a supposed professional, but I found it easy to change the station. Not all idiots are silenced as easily. Sorry I can’t answer the OP, but my WAG is that it does not differ from other epithets that point fun at a physical imperfection, like “harelip” or “bald guy”. Some such epithets are just worse than others
It is a frequent (not universal) characteristic of some people who are developmentally handicapped to not close their mouths when they are neither eating nor talking. They do not merely not keep their lips together, but actually allow their lower jaw to hang open (leading to the older companion insult to “mouth breather,” “slack jawed”).
I do not actually know where most humans developed the habit of keeping their mouths closed when not in use, but it is a voluntary action that DH kids never learn. (They are certainly capable of closing their mouths; it simply does not occur to them to do so.)
It may be a voluntary action, but isn’t it also an unconcious one? Looking at my pets, I was thinking that aside from panting in hot weather, they keep their mouths shut too.
Is it also a biological “good practice” habit of some kind? To prevent accidental inhalation of stuff? (I’m kind of thinking a scenario like walking through dense underbrush and the bugs, vegetation and assorted other stuff that I’d get in my mouth if it wasn’t closed. Bleh!)
Otherwise, responding to the OP, I agree that “mouth breather” is a similar kind of derogatory comment as “slack jawed.” You’ll see the “hanging jaw look” used for ridiculing stereotypes of the unintelligent.
In addition to what tomndebb wrote about DH kids not closig their mouths, it’s also related to the idea of being perpetually stunned or stupefied. Like when you see something surprising or shocking and your “jaw drops” in awe (momentarily, of course).
So part of the stereotype is that those of limited intelligence go through life wide-eyed and slack-jawed – amazed at the wonderment of the even the most banal – perpetually thunderstruck.
There is a cartoon character that has all the bad stereotpyes rolled into one. I’ll see if I can find it. I can only vaguely remember what he looks like. American “hill-billy/hayseed”, slack-jawed, only a few teeth, barefoot, sleepy eyes, has a name like Zeke…
So “mouth reather” is not nice, but doesn’t actually refer to “breathing.”
Perhaps you’re thinking of Cletus the Slack-jawed Yokel of Simpsons fame…?
I thought it might be Cletus, but I’m pretty sure it pre-dates him by quite a bit. The one I’m thinking of is a human version of the Disney character, Goofy.