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Ransom Riggs
Now (officially) a word: MEH
by Ransom Riggs - November 18, 2008 - 8:00 AM

meh-t-shirt.jpgWell, it’s about time! It was more than a year ago that I declared “meh” an official word, with only the lowly Wiktionary to back me up. Many of us have been saying it for years — yes, even before its famous inclusion on a 2001 episode of the Simpsons. Shunned by venerable lexicons everywhere, we rebelled, expressing our righteous indifference with an officially unrecognized shrug of the tongue: meh. So it’s a sweet victory, to say the least, to have our word finally recognized by something other than a user-editable online dictionary: it’s been tapped for inclusion in the Collins English Dictionary. According to the Chicago Tribune:

“The dictionary’s compilers said the word originated in North America, spread through the Internet and was now entering British spoken English. ‘This is a new interjection from the U.S. that seems to have inveigled its way into common speech over here,’ McKeown said. [Excellent use of inveigled.] ‘Internet forums and e-mail are playing a big part in formalizing the spellings of vocal interjections like these.’”

For you doubters out there, here’s our original Oct. 2007 declaration of “meh” as a an official word:

Who’s the arbiter of when a “slang” word well ensconced within the popular lexicon becomes a “real” word? The folks who publish the Oxford English Dictionary? Nah … we’d like to think it’s us. In which case, as of today, the word “meh” may now be used in college papers, scholarly journal articles, Vatican sermons, etc. Never heard of meh? I and at least one other floss blogger I know have been saying it for years, and it’s also made numerous appearances on The Simpsons, and elsewhere. Here’s how the Wiktionary defines it:

As an ADJECTIVE

  1. Mediocre; lackluster; unexceptional; uninspiring.
    • 2003: steve-o, Jam On The River Mini-Review [1] in rec.music.phish
      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 [2] in alt.tv.american-idol
      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… [3] in rec.sport.pro.wrestling
      Nothing that was supposed to be big and exciting came off as such and the rest was meh at best.

As an INTERJECTION

  1. I don’t know (the verbal equivalent of a shrug of the shoulders).
  2. I don’t care.
    “What do you want for dinner?” — “Meh. I’m not really hungry.”
  3. I don’t particularly like or dislike it.
    “That film was awesome!” — “Meh. I’ve seen better.”
  4. I’m unhappy and not very energetic or enthusiastic.
    The Simpsons, “Lisa’s Wedding” (March 19th, 1995):

    (Marge weaves “Hi Bart, I’m weaving a loom!” on a loom)
    Bart: Meh.
  5. A vocabularised sigh, commonly used in the online gaming community to represent indifference, or lack of enthusiasm at a certain proposal.
    “Hey, wanna go pwn some noobs?” — “Meh.”
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Comments (18)

  1. I was just talking about “meh” to my boyfriend the other day. When I get irritated with something online I shout M-E-H to the computer (as Lisa does to reiterate her lack of caring in a Simpson’s episode of which I can’t remember the name).
    You guys are psychic, aren’t you?

    posted by Emily on 4-11-2007 at 2:47 pm

  2. I’ve been saying “meh” for a long time and my mom never understands. Finally someone else gets my simple, one syllable emotions.

    posted by Rachel on 4-11-2007 at 5:13 pm

  3. Meh.

    posted by Higgins on 4-11-2007 at 5:22 pm

  4. All this time I thought my fiance (and me, by association) was the only one who used “meh”. Go figure.

    posted by Sara on 4-11-2007 at 5:36 pm

  5. So where do I buy that t-shirt?

    posted by srah on 4-11-2007 at 8:45 pm

  6. Oh. So thats what they’ve been saying about me. I thought it stood for Most Excellent Humor.

    posted by Miss Cellania on 4-11-2007 at 9:11 pm

  7. @srah: www.thinkgeek.com

    posted by andrew on 4-12-2007 at 1:19 am

  8. When me and my best friend were in junior high we would constantly say ‘meh’ and people would look at us perplexedly. This was about 5 or 6 years ago. It was our signature word.

    posted by Ann on 4-12-2007 at 6:53 am

  9. I don’t care enough to say “Meh.” I prefer “Eh.”

    Happy B- eh.

    posted by Phoebe on 4-12-2007 at 9:07 am

  10. In Napoli, Italia, they just say “‘mboh” which, whether accompanied by a shoulder shrug or not, means the same thing. That word’s ancient. Glad to see that English finally caught up.

    posted by CJ Casey on 4-12-2007 at 9:27 am

  11. I am not a language maven… but feh! is a yiddish expression that has been around for a long time. It’s an interjection indicating dismissive attitude, disapproval, sometimes disgust… Sounds like meh is a watered down less ethnic version.

    posted by Stew on 4-12-2007 at 2:39 pm

  12. Meh was in another episode of the Simpsons.
    The episode is called “Hungry, Hungry Homer.”
    The scene goes:
    Homer: Kids, how would you like to go to … Blockoland!
    Bart +
    Lisa: Meh.
    Homer: But the TV gave me the impression that –
    Bart: We said, “Meh!”
    Lisa: M-e-h, meh.

    posted by Will on 4-12-2007 at 6:48 pm

  13. I always thought it was an amalgation of the phrase “Hmm, nah.” or “Hmm, yeah (whatever)”

    posted by Johnny Cat on 4-12-2007 at 9:30 pm

  14. I’m so glad I’m not the only person who actually SAYS “meh”. IT expresses so much!

    posted by Korin on 4-13-2007 at 12:06 pm

  15. lol, next mentalfloss should recognize the word WOMP, its big in my circle

    posted by xavier on 4-16-2007 at 10:56 am

  16. I’ve been saying meh for years and years. I grew up in an isolated community with just 500 people and only 3 static tv stations. When I finally moved to the city and made a new friend, I said “Meh” in passing and they claimed “That’s MY word.” Well now it’s everybody’s word.

    posted by Laura on 11-18-2008 at 11:26 am

  17. I have to say, I’m a bit surprised that “Meh” was not officially a word.

    While in Cleveland (Ohio) this summer, I saw trash cans with all sorts of webdings on them. Snuggled inside these seemingly random icons was “meh”.

    Our group was beside ourselves.

    posted by stephanie on 11-18-2008 at 1:53 pm

  18. Feh.

    posted by FEH on 11-18-2008 at 3:53 pm

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