Dictionary definition of “talk out (the side of) one’s neck”

talk out (the side of) one’s neck

v. phr. to give an uninformed opinion; to fabulate; to talk unwisely or unguardedly; to blow smoke (out one’s ass). Also talk through (the side of) one’s neck. Subjects: English, Slang

Editorial Note: The claim in the second 1994 citation that the expression also exists in Dutch has not been substantiated.

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Citations: 1984 Cameo She’s Strange (song) “Talkin’ Out the Side of Your Neck”: Hey—you’re talking out the side of your neck/Hey—you’re gonna get what’s coming to you yet. 1989 Janet Maslin New York Times (Oct. 6) “Tom Selleck as a Police Pawn, in ‘Innocent Man’”: Inside the prison, there is Jimmie’s mentor Virgil Cane, played by F. Murray Abraham, who throws himself rather too heartily into the screenplay’s enthusiastic jive (’’Hey! Don’t you be talkin’ out the side of your neck when I’m tryin’ to do you a solid!’’). 1992 Ricardo Cortez Cruz Straight Outta Compton (Jan. 1) p. 31: He was ossified and out of it and talking out the side of his neck. 1992 Robin L. Gibson Usenet: rec.arts.movie (Nov. 20) “Re: spike lee & boston celtics”: It’s obvious you haven’t seen _X_ and are talking out the side of your neck, to boot. 1994 Laurence Fishburne Riff Raff p. 34 @ (1997): Nine-Lives, he started talking out the side of his neck about how Manny was moving out of crack and into dope. He never could stop running his mouth about how much money he was going to be making. 1994 Gerald de Jong Usenet: bit.listserv.geodesic (Dec. 3) “Synergetics—jitterbug, scale”: Only the sum of all these experiences would be able to make up Universe itself. of course i’m just “talking out of my neck” as we say in Dutch. 1995 Greg Tate Village Voice (New York City) (Oct. 17) “Bigger’s Got Bank” p. 27: Fuhrman is a creature who seems invented to indict the Juice and engineer his acquittal. He’s a two-headed-talking-out-the-side-of-his-neck beast of the apocalypse, who brought new formations of knowledge and power to the table. 2002 Usenet: alt.music.saxophone (Feb. 22) “Re: Red brass vs. yellow brass”: No pictures—thus Alon was talking through his neck. He was just testing the reaction of the people. well he got what he wanted.

Posted 25 Nov 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

Grant- Jackpot on the Dutch thing, I think. I don’t know Dutch, so this is based on Internet translators, but “uit de/je nek praten” definitely means “from the neck speak.” You should find someone who knows, though. It’d be really interesting to know when this moved over—whether it’s in all the Germanic languages or whether it’s an Old New York thing.

2003 Usenet:nl.newsgroups (Jan. 13) “RFD-1 nl.sport”: Uit de nek praten kan iedereen.

(From the neck, everyone can speak.)

2003 Usenet:be.music (July 9) “Delimonator” : dus wie moet ik dan geloven jullie die maar uit je nek praten

(something like “so why should i believe that you only talk from your neck")

I assume it’s also in German and I fooled around for awhile with “aus dem Hals (or Nacken or Genick) reden (or sprechen)” but no dice.

-Tim

by tcassedy 26 Nov 05, 0704 GMT

What a fabulous website. Amazing. Thank you.

by lmharmon 27 Nov 05, 1136 GMT

I am Dutch and I must confirm that the expression really exists here. The first comment is correct. The expression in dutch is “uit zijn nek kletsen”. To prove this I looked it up on the website of _the_ dutch dictionary. Here is the link. It is in dutch, so I don’t expect you to understand what is says. Just search for the word ‘nek’ on the page… or ‘kletsen’ and you’ll see that it really exists. Here it is: http://www.vandale.nl/opz oeken/woordenboek/?zoekwo ord=kletsen

by Leviter 02 Jan 06, 0702 GMT

It appears in tv series Prison Break, season 1 episode 1

by Eamnuele 12 Dec 07, 0944 GMT

AA slang from the 1970s. It means talking and bypassing the brain.

by Pamela Arencibia 25 Dec 07, 1231 GMT