Meaning
An imaginary guitar played by mime: the performer frets and strums at empty air, usually along to recorded or live rock music; the term also names the act itself, as in playing air guitar. What began as bedroom and stadium pantomime is now an organised pastime, with national championships and a world title contested annually in Oulu, Finland. The verb and the word for the performer, air guitarist, follow from it. The OED labels the noun originally US. The verb of 1983 postdates the noun of 1980. Origin stories naming one inventor conflate the 1960s-70s mime with the printed term, which the dictionaries independently date to 1980. Regional use: Originally US; now international.
Origin
The OED entry defines air guitar as an imaginary guitar played by miming, labels it originally US, and dates the noun to 1980 - verified directly - its first quotation a caption in the Hartford Courant of 24 April 1980: 'Roy Charette displays his prize-winning form at playing the air guitar. The guitar, you see, isn't really there.' Merriam-Webster's First Known Use is also 1980, and the OED dates the verb to 1983. The practice is older than the word: Wikipedia records Joe Cocker miming guitar and keyboard at Woodstock in 1969, Rob 'Loonhouse' Yeatman playing a hardboard Flying V cutout at a London heavy-metal club in 1976, and one of the first contests at Florida State University in 1978; the Air Guitar World Championships have run in Oulu since 1996. Stories crediting a single inventor, usually Cocker, date the mime, not the phrase.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- air drums
- air guitarist
- to air-guitar
Usage Examples
- The solo hit and three thousand arms rose in unison, playing air guitar to every note.
- He won the regional heat with a flawless air-guitar rendition of the closing number.
- No instruments allowed at the office party, so the band was strictly air guitar.