Learn English – Origin of “to blow your own horn”

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What's the origin of the idiom "to blow your own horn"?

Collins Dictionary suggests the following note regarding the BrE version with trumpet:

Note: The usual British expression is blow your own trumpet. Note: In the past, the arrival of important people in a place was announced by the playing of trumpets.

Is there some metaphor behind it with some animal horn? Does the AmE "horn" version derive from the BrE "trumpet" one or viceversa?

Best Answer

According to the article Instruments of Expression: Bells, Drums, and a Horn, it refers to the practice of heraldry. It comes from the sense of 'horn' as a trumpet, and one who blows his own horn is someone making great fanfare about himself, as is usually more appropriately left to a herald.

It says specifically:

To blow your own horn is to be a braggart or "blowhard." This expression, arising in the American West about the middle of the 19th century, derives from an earlier expression, blow your own trumpet, dating back to at least 1576 and probably originating in medieval times, when heralds blew trumpets to announce the arrival of the king. Of course, any merchant or other commoner who wanted to announce his arrival had to blow his own horn.

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