nyuk nyuk nyuk. posted by tula at 12:39 PM on February 16, 2007
When the Greek grammarian Thrax...
Bah. Thrax wasn't the dude's name, it was an epithet added to distinguish Dionysius Thrax (Διονύσιος ὁ Θρᾷξ, 170‑90 BC) from the zillion other Dionysiuses out there (I believe Dionysius was the most common Greek name in ancient times by a wide margin). It means 'Thracian,' so that the whole name can be rendered "Dennis from Thrace."
That said, this was an enjoyable piece, rendered particularly believable by the imprimatur of MeFi's own myl (Mark Lieberman). posted by languagehat at 12:40 PM on February 16, 2007 [1 favorite]
I gotta say that I find this more than a little amusing:
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "meh" is a form of the obsolete english word "mighe". Specifically examples of "meh" used this way in print can be found circa 1300.
So what is the definition of "mighe"? to urinate
— Which is pretty much what "meh" means in it's current usage in blog comments, (as in "piss on this") resurrected 700 years later. What are the chances of that? posted by spock at 12:50 PM on February 16, 2007 [4 favorites]
That said, this was an enjoyable piece, rendered particularly believable by the imprimatur of MeFi's own myl (Mark Lieberman).
It's Liberman, languagehat. We normal mortals have to scratch and beg just to get a post-hoc name drop by Pullum, whilst you just sit back and get linked to regularly on the llog front page, you weasel. You could at least spell the man's name right.
And I hate that he's got a lower user number than me. Freakin' linguists. posted by cortex at 1:08 PM on February 16, 2007
And how to render the sound of an unvoiced glottal cough-type-thing of disgust, anyway? It's a great interjection—like a tiny little spasm of audible but not-quite-vocalized uncontrollable rejection—but I can't think of a good rendering, short of "*cough*". posted by cortex at 1:10 PM on February 16, 2007
*deletes multithousand-word treatise on why the glib sentiments embodied by "meh" might represent the nadir of a particular branch of civilization*
Shazam! posted by gompa at 1:12 PM on February 16, 2007
Zoinks! posted by spilon at 1:14 PM on February 16, 2007
wheeHAWKEN! posted by COBRA! at 1:20 PM on February 16, 2007
boioioioioing. aOOOga. gnurgnur. badongadongadonga. badabing. gyukyukyuk. oogleoogleoogle. hmmmmm. wawawawawawaaaaa. brapp. posted by hexatron at 1:34 PM on February 16, 2007
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "meh" is a form of the obsolete english word "mighe". Specifically examples of "meh" used this way in print can be found circa 1300.
Specifically, this example, from the Otho MS. of Layamon:
He nam his vrnal anon; an þe king meh þar-on.
Which looks like it should mean 'He took his urinal anon, and the king pissed thereon,' but probably doesn't. I have no idea what "vrnal" means, though.
It's Liberman, languagehat... You could at least spell the man's name right.
Fuck me! God fucking damn my rotting hide, I do that all the time! And Mark hates it, and I promised him I'd never do it again after he [sic]ed me on p. 113 of Far from the Madding Gerund: "On the question of the number of new English words per year, Languagehat writes: Lieberman [sic] rightly (in my opinion) discounts the trademarks..." And he's bound to see this and seethe. Dammit, now I want the ability to edit comments.
ColdChef: In my youth, we usually said "no doy" rather than "doy", to mean "no kidding!" or "isn't it obvious?" posted by Lord Kinbote at 2:02 PM on February 16, 2007
cortex, my closed captioning invariably renders that as "scoffs". posted by katemonster at 2:04 PM on February 16, 2007
Oh! "scoff" is a pretty good rendering. Have I just been to dense to pick up on that as an established literal relationship all these years? posted by cortex at 2:07 PM on February 16, 2007
Durhey! posted by Durhey at 2:07 PM on February 16, 2007
You have no idea how long I've been waiting to do that. posted by Durhey at 2:22 PM on February 16, 2007 [1 favorite]
¡ Ja ja ja !
As it happens, me laughing "in spanish" seems like ya ya ya instead of ha ha ha to my english speaking (writing?) friends. posted by CrazyLemonade at 2:23 PM on February 16, 2007
So I bacame used to "laughing" in "english". Now it must sound like a a a to my spanish speaking friends. posted by CrazyLemonade at 2:25 PM on February 16, 2007
Interjections! (Well!) show excitement! (Oh!) or emotion (Hey!)
They're generally set apart from a sentence by an exclamation point -
Or by a comma when the feeling's not as strong.
So when you're happy (Hur-ray!) or sad (Aww!)
Or frightened (Eeeeeek!) or mad (Rats!)
Or excited (Wow!) or glad (Hey!)
An interjection starts a sentence right.
hrumph.
(as in: I didn't get a hrumph outta that guy - Hrumph the governor! Hrumph! Hrumph! - You watch your ass) posted by Smedleyman at 2:27 PM on February 16, 2007
It was in IRC. It was never meant for public consumption. Backroom chatter. Someone on the channel blogged it, and Zimmer found it, and, well, yes. Hrm.
There is no cabal. posted by cortex at 2:57 PM on February 16, 2007
yada yada yada
I can't believe that nobody else had used that yet. What, is Seinfeld now Old and Busted? Not that there's anything wrong with that. posted by wendell at 3:20 PM on February 16, 2007
(and I really think that the OED was reaching there; the chances of three letter with a vowel in the middle being used before is quite high. The brain does so want to have clear etymologies for words; it makes the world a neater, if smaller and more bland, place.) posted by scruss at 4:26 PM on February 16, 2007
"Keh." or perhaps "Khh." would be my rendition of the unvoiced glottal cough-type-thing of disgust.
...hmmm....should I limit all comments to platitudes from schoolhouse rock? Truly all knowlege stems from that spring.
Nah, I get my thing in action. posted by Smedleyman at 8:51 PM on February 16, 2007
OMG, it's full of interjections! posted by reventlov at 9:03 PM on February 16, 2007
Subscribe
posted by DU at 12:23 PM on February 16, 2007