meh

See also: Meh, MEH, MÉH, méh, and -meh

English

WOTD – 1 April 2009

Etymology 1

Popularized by the American television show The Simpsons; first used on the show in the episode titled "Sideshow Bob Roberts" (1994). Possibly ultimately from Yiddish מע (me, “so-so”). First attested in 1928.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /mɛ/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /me/

  • Audio (General Australian):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛ

Adjective

meh (comparative more meh, superlative most meh)

1. Mediocre; lackluster; unexceptional; uninspiring.
   • 2003, steve-o, “Jam On The River Mini-Review”, in rec.music.phish‎^[1] (Usenet):

     They redeemed themselves with this show. The first song or two was meh, but they were on fire after that.

   • 2006, Suzanne D., “Recaps: Finals Week 8 Performances, 5/2/2006”, in alt.tv.american-idol‎^[2] (Usenet):

     The voice is excellent as always, but the overall effect was meh until the end, where he became a little bit awesome.

   • 2006, FunkyM, “Turned on RAW for the first time in forever last night…”, in rec.sport.pro.wrestling‎^[3] (Usenet):

     Nothing that was supposed to be big and exciting came off as such and the rest was meh at best.

2. Apathetic; unenthusiastic.
   • 2003, Dana, “10/18/03 Shows”, in alt.tv.trading-spaces‎^[4] (Usenet):

     Both shows left me feeling, meh.

   • 2004, jennifer, “The FANtasia thing: I don’t get it…”, in alt.gossip.celebrities‎^[5] (Usenet):

     I’m a huge Clay fan, love Ruben’s voice, and have become quite a fan of Kelly’s, as well. Fantasia just leaves me feeling meh.

   • 2006, ettie...@hotmail.com, “Steve’s impressions on random Genesis games”, in rec.games.video.sega‎^[6] (Usenet):

     I liked it but I wasn’t feeling it for some reason that day, again, I was feeling meh toward video games in general.

Translations

mediocre; lackluster; unexceptional; uninspiring

• Czech: nic moc (cs)
• Finnish: vaisu (fi)
• Hungarian: olyan-amilyen, úgy-ahogy (hu), csak-csak (hu), semmilyen (hu), se íze, se bűze
• Italian: mediocre (it), dozzinale (it), da poco
• Russian: фигня́ (ru) f (fignjá) (noun), фиго́вый (ru) (figóvyj) (adjective)

apathetic; unenthusiastic

• Finnish: tympäistä (fi) (to feel meh)
• Hungarian: egykedvű (hu), unott (hu)
• Russian: безразли́чный (ru) (bezrazlíčnyj) (adjective), безразли́чие (ru) n (bezrazlíčije) (noun); по́фиг (ru) (pófig) (impersonal)

Interjection

meh

1. (slang) Expressing indifference or lack of enthusiasm.

   “What do you want for dinner?” — “Meh. I’m not really hungry.”

   “That film was awesome!” — “Meh. I’ve seen better.”

   • 1995 March 19, “Lisa's Wedding”, in The Simpsons:

     Marge: [weaving on a loom] “Hi Bart, I’m weaving on a loom!”
     Bart: “Meh”.

   • 2014 September 7, Natalie Angier, “The Moon comes around again [print version: Revisiting a moon that still has secrets to reveal: Supermoon revives interest in its violent origins and hidden face, International New York Times, 10 September 2014, p. 8]”, in The New York Times‎^[7]:

     Scientists say that while the public may think of the moon as a problem solved and a bit retro – the place astronauts visited a half-dozen times way back before Watergate and then abandoned with a giant "meh" from mankind – in fact, lunar studies is a vibrant enterprise that is yielding a wealth of surprises.

Synonyms

• pht, pshh, phht, pssh, pssht, psht, pshht, feh, pooh, pshaw, pish, bah, poh

Translations

slang: expressing indifference or lack of enthusiasm

• Czech: hm (cs)
• Finnish: hmm, pah, pyh (fi)
• French: bof (fr)
• Hungarian: á (hu), ugyan (hu), ugyan már
• Italian: bah
• Portuguese: nhé
• Russian: ну (ru) (nu) (generalising), хм (ru) (xm) (generalising); пф (pf) (more indifference and a bit of defiance); фу (ru) (fu), фе (ru) (fe), фи (ru) (fi) (even more indifference and defiance)
• Swedish: tsk (sv), äh (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• German: ^{(please verify)} mh (de)
• Slovene: ^{(please verify)} eh
• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} bah (es)

Noun

meh

1. (informal) A judgement marked by indifference; lack of impression.

Etymology 2

From Cantonese 咩 (me¹).

Pronunciation

• (Singapore, Malaysia) IPA^(key): /mɛ(ː)˦/, /mɛ(ː)˦˨/

Particle

meh (Manglish, Singlish)

2. Final question particle expressing skepticism.

   Really meh? ― Really? I don’t think so.

   This one your one meh? ― Is this really yours?

   • 2020, Yasser Khan, Property Agent Secrets: The Underground Playbook For Growing Your Property Agent Business in 2021 & Beyond‎^[8], →ISBN, page 123:

     "Huh? At this hour? Really meh?" He couldn't believe his own ears.

   • 2013 October 7, Tee Hun Ching, The Sunday Times, Singapore, page 12:

     “Nice meh?” I would think sourly.

   • 2010 August 22, Fiona Chan, The Sunday Times, Singapore, page 13:

     You got send [e-mail] meh? I never receive leh.

See also

• (Singlish particles): ah, hor, know, lah, leh, liao, lor, mah, one, sia, what

Etymology 3

Onomatopoeic.

Interjection

meh

1. A bleating sound, as that of a sheep or goat.

   Synonym: maa

   • 2017, Amanda Craig, The Lie of the Land, London: Little, Brown, →ISBN, page 318:

     'Mehh,' they say to the ewes, and the ewes answer, ¶ 'Meeehh.' ¶ 'Mheh.' ¶ 'Meh-meh.'

   • 2020, Heather Blake, A Witch to Remember, New York, N.Y.: Crooked Lane, →ISBN, page 139:

     Cookie was bouncing around stacks of brightly colored tires, mehhing happily, while Scal stood on one end of a teeter-totter like he was king of the world.

Further reading

• Lim, L. (2007 November) “Mergers and acquisitions: On the ages and origins of Singapore English particles”, in World Englishes, volume 26, number 4, →ISSN, pages 446-473
• Leimgruber, J. (2015 October) “Bah in Singapore English”, in World Englishes‎^[9], volume 35, number 1, →DOI, →ISSN
• Lim, L. (2004) Singapore English: A grammatical description‎^[10], John Benjamins Publishing, →ISBN, page 121

Anagrams

• 'hem, hem-, hem, Hem, ehm

Albanian

Alternative forms

• mef

Etymology

From Proto-Albanian *meuska, from Proto-Indo-European *mewH- (compare Latvian maût (“to submerge”), Serbo-Croatian mȉti (“to wash”)).

Verb

meh (aorist meha)

1. to soak

Related terms

• muf

East Central German

Etymology

From Middle High German mēre, from Old High German mēro, from Proto-West Germanic *maiʀō, from Proto-Germanic *maizô, from Proto-Indo-European *mē- (“many”).

Adjective

meh

1. (Erzgebirgisch) more

Adverb

meh

1. (Erzgebirgisch) any longer
2. (Erzgebirgisch) more
3. (Erzgebirgisch) anymore

Further reading

• 2020 June 11, Hendrik Heidler, Hendrik Heidler's 400 Seiten: Echtes Erzgebirgisch: Wuu de Hasen Hoosn haaßn un de Hosen Huusn do sei mir drhamm: Das Original Wörterbuch: Ratgeber und Fundgrube der erzgebirgischen Mund- und Lebensart: Erzgebirgisch – Deutsch / Deutsch – Erzgebirgisch‎^[11], 3. geänderte Auflage edition, Norderstedt: BoD – Books on Demand, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 84:

Kholosi

Etymology

From Sanskrit मेघ (megha, “cloud”).

Noun

meh ?

1. rain

References

• Eric Anonby, Hassan Mohebi Bahmani (2014) “Shipwrecked and Landlocked: Kholosi, an Indo-Aryan Language in South-west Iran”, in Cahier de Studia Iranica xx‎^[12], pages 13-36

Northern Kurdish

Etymology

From Proto-Iranian *mā́Hah (compare Persian ماه (mâh), Ossetian мӕй (mæj), Avestan 𐬨𐬃 (mā̊), 𐬨𐬀𐬊𐬢𐬵 (maoŋh)), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *mā́Has (compare Sanskrit मास (mā́sa)), from Proto-Indo-European *mḗh₁n̥s (“moon; month”) (compare Albanian muaj, Armenian ամիս (amis), French mois, Tocharian A mañ, English moon).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛh

Noun

meh f

1. month

Related terms

• mang

Pennsylvania German

Etymology

From Middle High German mēr, from Old High German mēro. Compare German mehr, Dutch meer, English more.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /meː/

Adjective

meh

1. more

Adverb

meh

1. any longer
2. more
3. anymore

Scots

Etymology

Dialectal representation of ma.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛ/

Determiner

meh

1. (Dundee) my

   Synonyms: ma, wir

   Eh hud meh eh on a peh. ― I had my eye on a pie.

Serbo-Croatian

Alternative forms

• mijȇh (Ijekavian)

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *měxъ.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mêːx/

Noun

mȇh m (Cyrillic spelling ме̑х)

1. blower, bellows
2. goatskin, wineskin

Declension

Declension of meh

	singular	plural
nominative	mȇh	mȅhovi
genitive	meha	mehova
dative	mehu	mehovima
accusative	meh	mehove
vocative	mehu / meše	mehovi
locative	mehu	mehovima
instrumental	mehom	mehovima

Related terms

• mešina

Slovene

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *měxъ

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /méːx/

Noun

mẹ̑h m inan

1. bellows

Inflection

The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.

Masculine inan., hard o-stem, plural in -ôv-
nom. sing.	méh
gen. sing.	méha
	singular	dual	plural
nominative (imenovȃlnik)	méh	mehôva	mehôvi
genitive (rodȋlnik)	méha	mehôv	mehôv
dative (dajȃlnik)	méhu	mehôvoma	mehôvom
accusative (tožȋlnik)	méh	mehôva	mehôve
locative (mẹ̑stnik)	méhu	mehôvih	mehôvih
instrumental (orọ̑dnik)	méhom	mehôvoma	mehôvi

Further reading

• “meh”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU, portal Fran
• “meh”, in Termania, Amebis
• See also the general references

South Slavey

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [mɛ̀(h)]
• Hyphenation: meh

Noun

meh

1. Fort Liard form of mbeh

Inflection

Possessive inflection of meh (-mehé)

		singular	plural
1st person		semehé	naxemehé
2nd person		nemehé
3rd person	1)	—	gimehé
	2)	memehé	gomehé
4th person		yemehé
reflexive	sp.	ɂedemehé	kedemehé
	unsp.	demehé
reciprocal		—	ɂełemehé
indefinite		ɂemehé
areal		gomehé
1) Used when the subject is a group of human beings and the object is singular. 2) Used when the previous condition does not apply.

References

• Keren Rice (1989) A Grammar of Slave, Berlin, West Germany: Mouton de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 11

Spanish

Interjection

meh

1. meh

Zhuang

Etymology

From Proto-Tai *meːᴮ (“mother”). Cognate with Thai แม่ (mɛ̂ɛ), Northern Thai ᨾᩯ᩵, Lao ແມ່ (mǣ), Lü ᦶᦙᧈ (mae¹), Shan မႄႈ (māae), Ahom 𑜉𑜦𑜧 (mē), Bouyei meeh.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Zhuang) IPA^(key): /me˧/
• Tone numbers: me⁶
• Hyphenation: meh

Noun

meh (Sawndip forms 𭑫 or 姆 or 𫰤 or 𭒛 or 㜆, 1957–1982 spelling meƅ)

1. mother

   Synonym: daxmeh

2. woman; female

Classifier

meh (1957–1982 spelling meƅ)

1. Used for adult women who have given birth.
2. Used for female animals that have given birth or laid eggs.

Adjective

meh (1957–1982 spelling meƅ)

1. main; principal

Derived terms

• mehfwngz