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Something to get excited about?

Apparently the English lexicon in the early 21st century owes a hefty debt to The Simpsons. In 2001, the Oxford English Dictionary legitimized the term “d’oh,” Homer’s iconic expression of frustration, by including it within its pages. Now another expression from the show “ “meh” “ has made it into the Collins Dictionary.

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

The origins of “meh” are murky, but the term grew in popularity after being used in a 2001 episode of The Simpsons in which Homer suggests a day trip to his children Bart and Lisa.

“They both just reply ‘meh’ and keep watching TV,” said Cormac McKeown, head of content at Collins Dictionaries.

The dictionary defines “meh” as an expression of indifference or boredom, or an adjective meaning mediocre or boring. Examples given by the dictionary include “the Canadian election was so meh”.

Notwithstanding the precision of that usage example, Quillblog would like to suggest some other words or phrases that should be officially sanctioned in the English language: OMG, lolcats, my bad, misunderestimated, and awesomesauce.

By

November 17th, 2008

12:25 pm

Category: Book news

Tagged with: Neologism