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'Meh' makes Collins English Dictionary

Whatever

The interjection "meh" has beaten "frenemy", "huggles" and "jargonaut" for inclusion in the 30th anniversary edition of the Collins English Dictionary following an invitation to the unwashed masses to submit neologisms reflecting the current state of play with our beloved mother lingo.

According to the Times, meh was chosen by a panel of judges in the "Word of Mouth" campaign "because of its frequent use today". It was suggested by Erin Whyte of Nottingham, who described it as “an expression of utter boredom or an indication of how little you care for an idea”.The dictionary will define the word as "an interjection to suggest indifference or boredom - or as an adjective to say something is mediocre or a person is unimpressed".

Cormac McKeown, Collins Dictionaries head of content, said: “This is a new interjection from the US that seems to have inveigled its way into common speech over here. It was actually spelt out in The Simpsons, when Homer is trying to prise the kids away from the TV with a suggestion for a day trip. They both just reply ‘meh’ and keep watching TV; he asks again and Lisa says, ‘We said MEH! - MEH, meh!’"

The rise of meh is apparently a sign of how email and the interwebs are "creating language". McKeown explained: “Internet and email are playing a big part in formalising the spellings of vocal interjections like these. Other examples would be hmm and heh, which are both now ubiquitous online and in emails. People are increasingly writing in a register somewhere in between spoken and written English.”

Regular readers will recall that "pod slurping" was crowned Oz word of the year 2007, while "wiki" last year poked its ugly face into the online edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. Whatever. ®

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