he

He. o. interjection del / que ſequexa con do / lor.

1571, Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, f. 22r. col. 1:

He. ouch, and interjection used by one complaining in pain.


he

(onomatopoeia) Signifies a laugh, especially one that is slightly mischievous.


he

interjection used to attract someone's attention, hey


he

(Near Masovian, often repeated) used to direct oxen to move forward


bad

From Middle English bad, badde (“wicked, evil, depraved”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps a shortening of Old English bæddel (“hermaphrodite”) (for loss of -el compare Middle English muche from Old English myċel, and Middle English wenche from Old English wenċel), or at least related to it and/or to bǣ̆dan (“to defile”), compare Old High German pad (“hermaphrodite”).
Alternatively, perhaps a loan from Old Norse into Middle English, compare Norwegian bad (“effort, trouble, fear”, neuter noun), East Danish bad (“damage, destruction, fight”, neuter noun), from the Proto-Germanic noun *badą, whence also Proto-Germanic *badōną (“to frighten”), Old Saxon undarbadōn (“to frighten”), Norwegian Nynorsk bada (“to weigh down, press”).

unk

uncertain

cog

æ-tensing, New York City, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Baltimore

Bad! You know you're not allowed in the kitchen after dinner.

Used to scold a misbehaving child or pet.


ba

(Masuria, Ostróda, Warmia) Denotes surprise; there you have it!


pula

Definite form of pulă, probably from Latin pulla, feminine of pullus (“offspring, child, cub, chick, etc.”)

E ușor, pula!

(vulgar, slang) bullshit! (expression of disbelief)


sound

From Middle English sound, sund, isund, ȝesund, from Old English sund, ġesund (“sound, safe, whole, uninjured, healthy, prosperous”), from Proto-West Germanic *sund, from Proto-Germanic *gasundaz, *sundaz (“healthy”), from Proto-Indo-European *sunt-, *swent- (“vigorous, active, healthy”).
Cognate with Scots sound, soun (“healthy, sound”), Saterland Frisian suund, gesuund (“healthy”), West Frisian sûn (“healthy”), Dutch gezond (“healthy, sound”), Low German sund, gesund (“healthy”), German gesund (“healthy, sound”), Danish sund (“healthy”), Swedish sund (“sound, healthy”). Related also to Dutch gezwind (“fast, quick”), German geschwind (“fast, quick”), Old English swīþ (“strong, mighty, powerful, active, severe, violent”). See swith.

I found my jacket. — Sound.

(British, Ireland, slang) Yes; used to show agreement or understanding.


OK

→ Afrikaans: oukei

desc

→ Arabic: أُوكِي (ʔokey), أُوكَي (ʔukay)

→ Cantonese: OK (ou1 kei1), O (ou1)

→ Danish: okay, OK

→ Dutch: oké

→ Esperanto: okej

→ Estonian: okei

→ Finnish: okei

→ French: okay

→ German: okay

→ Hebrew: אוקי (okéy)

→ Hindi: ओके (oke)

→ Hungarian: oké

→ Indonesian: oke

→ Icelandic: ókei

→ Italian: ok

→ Japanese: OK (ōkē), オーケー (ōkē)

→ Korean: OK (okei), 오케이 (okei)

→ Macedonian: океј (okej)

→ Malay: okey

→ Mandarin: OK (ōukèi, ōukēi)

→ Polish: okej

→ Portuguese: OK

→ Russian: окей (okej)

→ Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic script: океј

Latin script: okej

→ Spanish: okay, okey

→ Swedish: okej

→ Thai: โอเค (oo-kee)

→ Turkish: okey

→ Ukrainian: окей (okej)

→ West Frisian: okee

→ Yiddish: אָקיי (okey)

Origin disputed. Wikipedia lists many possible etymologies, of which the most widely accepted is that it is an abbreviation of oll/orl korrect, a comical spelling of all correct, which first appeared in print in The Boston Morning Post on March 23, 1839, as part of a fad for similar fanciful abbreviations in the United States during the late 1830s. The expression became popular through its use in the presidential campaign of Martin Van Buren in 1840, who was nicknamed Old Kinderhook, and then slowly acquired other meanings.
The Choctaw word oke, okeh (“it is so”), common in Choctaw translations of the Bible, could also explain OK's variety of affirmative definitions. Additionally, okeh was the most common etymology of okay in dictionaries until the 1960s, and linguistically predates Boston's O.K.. However, this theory suffers from the fact that the Choctaw language was relatively obscure and generally spoken (sometimes in a pidgin form) mainly with African-American slaves.

unk

disputed

I promise to give it back. – OK.

Let's meet again this afternoon. – OK.

Shut up! – OK, OK.

OK! I get it! Stop nagging me!

Come by this afternoon. — Okay.
Audio (US): (file)

2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

Used to indicate acknowledgement or acceptance.

rồi

acknowledges an item in a list of requests, such as when taking an order

(computing) Used to dismiss a dialog box or confirm a prompt.

OK

dismissal of a dialog box or confirmation of a prompt

OK, I'm thinking of a number…

Used to introduce a sentence in order to draw attention to the importance of what is being said.

طَيِّب

introduction of a sentence in order to draw attention

You always do this to me! When we were at your mother’s, you said that… – OK, OK, …

Used in turn-taking, serving as a request to the speaker to grant the turn to the interrupter.

Used to sarcastically or sardonically indicate agreement with the previous statement.


OK

/ˀoʊ̯⁵⁵ kʰeɪ̯⁵¹/

/ˀoʊ̯⁵⁵ kʰeɪ̯⁵⁵/

/ou̯⁵⁵ kʰei̯⁵⁵/

/ˀoʊ̯⁵⁵ kʰeɪ̯⁵¹/

/ˀoʊ̯⁵⁵ kʰeɪ̯⁵⁵/

/ou̯⁵⁵ kʰei̯⁵⁵/

If higher authorities say "OK", it means "OK".

上頭說OK就OK了。

上头说OK就OK了。


OK

OK (canonical)
OK (canonical)
ōkē (romanization)
okkē (romanization)

2009 August 25, Kozue Amano, “第(だい)２(に)話(わ) 夢(ゆめ)ヶ丘(おか)高(こう)校(こう) [Chapter 2: Yumegaoka High School]”, in [あまんちゅ](ＡＭＡＮＣＨＵ)！ [AMANCHU!], volume 1 (fiction), Tokyo: Mag Garden, →ISBN, pages 33–38:

Number 1 “Preparation”, check!! Number 2 “Location”: Entryway, check!! Number 3 “Time”: 7:30, check!! Number 4 “Air”... Hwee, check!! Number 5 “Action”: Let’s la gooo! Check!!

その１「準備」っ ＯＫ‼その２「位置」っ お家の玄関 ＯＫ‼その３「時間」っ ７時３０分 ＯＫ‼その４「空気」っ…………ピッ ＯＫ‼その５「行動」っ レッツらゴ——！ＯＫ‼

Sono ichi “Junbi”h okkē!! Sono ni “Ichi”h o-uchi no genkan okkē!! Sono san “Jikan”h shichiji sanjuppun okkē!! Sono yon “Kūkan”h... pih okkē!! Sono go “Kōdō”h rettsu ra gō—! Okkē!!


OK

OK (indicates acknowledgement or acceptance)


OK

hủy bỏ

antonym(s) of “dismissal of a dialog box or confirmation of a prompt”

(informal) OK, okay (acknowledgement or acceptance)

(computing) OK, okay (dismissal of a dialog box or confirmation of a prompt)


bet

From 16th-century criminal slang, perhaps from Middle English bet (“something better, advantage, luck”); or from abet, from Middle English abet, abette, from Old French abet (“incitement to evil”), from Old French abeter (“to entice”), from a- (“to”) + beter (“hound on, urge, to bait”); ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *baitijan (“to bait, entice”), related to Old English bǣtan (“to bait”). More at abet.

der

Let me bust a freestyle then (Alright, bet)

1988, Dr. Dre, MC Ren (lyrics and music), “If It Ain't Ruff”, in Straight Outta Compton, performed by N.W.A., track 4:

He asked if KRS could come by and meet up with a few of us there on Monday night, as he wanted to show him the church and have me build with him. Aight, bet.

2008 November 5, S.O.U.LMag, number 13, page 66:

Then I rocked the Kansas show and after Jay said, ‘Look, if you want, you can go on tour with us and open and close the shows, but we can’t pay you, but we’ll make sure you get the exposure.’ So I said bet […]

2013 September 16, Insight News, volume 40, number 38, published 2013 September 12, page 6:

She texted Jimenez and told him it was a nice time, but she wasn’t feeling him and apologized. “Bet,” Jimenez replied, because she kind of pissed him off with that comment.

2017 November 6, The DePaulia, volume 102, number 8, DePaul University, published 2017 November 4, page 20:

Expression of general agreement or acceptance.

What you may not have stopped to consider is that Big Clit Energy (here referred to as B.C.E.) has been around since... BCE! Eve? She looked sin in the eye and said, “Bet.”

2018 September 4, The Rice Thresher, volume 103, number 3, Rice University, page 9:

“(Drummer Brenden Accettura) texted me that and was like, ‘Should we name our band The Hot Mess Express?’ and I said, ‘Bet.’ So now that’s our name,” Abbie said, getting words out between laughs.

2019 April 30, Key Magazine, Bowling Green State University: BG Falcon Media, page 26:

Exclamation indicating acceptance of a challenge or an absurd proposal.

I started making jokes about him feeling like tough sh*t after that presentation haha. Everyone at school geeked his head up [inflated his ego]. He probably got two fruit cups from the lunch lady that day and said, “Bet! I’m gonna keep doing this!”

2019 May 31, CopyWrite Magazine, number 14, page 43:


me

baa (representing the bleating sound sheep make)


me

(onomatopoeia) used to imitate the sound of a sheep or ram, baa


law

‘Do tell me once for all, whether you intend to marry Mr Watts or not?’ ‘Law Mama, how can I tell you what I don't know myself?’

1791-92, Jane Austen, ‘The Three Sisters’, Juvenilia

[…] and my boots were a leetle 'eavier than they are, law bless my soul! I'd do it myself.

1870, Arthur William A'Beckett, The Tomahawk: A Saturday Journal of Satire, page 104:

Arthur Sketchley. But, law bless my 'art , it's werry orful to be a forriner, as I were a-thinkin', and never be able to make yourself understood, except in that gibberish,

2024 March 1, Arthur Sketchley, Mrs. Brown on the Skating Rink, BoD – Books on Demand, →ISBN, page 127:

(dated) An exclamation of mild surprise; lawks; in interjections, a minced oath for Lord.


look

some Northern Enɡlish dialects, esp. Bolton, Geordie

From Middle English loken, lokien, from Old English lōcian, from Proto-West Germanic *lōkōn. Further origin unknown, no certain cognates outside Germanic. Cognate with Scots luke, luik, leuk (“to look, see”), West Frisian lôkje, loaitsje (“to look”), Dutch loeken (“to look”), German Low German löken. Likely also related to German lugen (“to peek”), Alemannic German luege (“to look”), Yiddish לוגן (lugn). Possibly related to Sanskrit लोक् (lok, “to see, behold”) (from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“light”) in the sense of "illuminating" (cf. related word रुच् (ruc) "to shine, illuminate")).

unk

unknown

Look, I'm going to explain what to do, so you have to listen closely.


sweet

From Middle English swete, from Old English swēte (“sweet”), from Proto-West Germanic *swōtī, from Proto-Germanic *swōtuz (“sweet”), from Proto-Indo-European *swéh₂dus (“sweet”).
Cognate and synonymous with Scots sweit (“sweet”), North Frisian sweete (“sweet”), Saterland Frisian swäit (“sweet”), West Frisian swiet (“sweet”), Dutch zoet (“sweet”), German Low German sööt (“sweet”), German süß (“sweet”), Danish sød (“sweet”), Swedish söt (“sweet”), Norwegian søt (“sweet”), Icelandic sætur (“sweet”), Latin suāvis, Sanskrit स्वादु (svādú), Ancient Greek ἡδύς (hēdús). Doublet of suave.

They're making a sequel? Ah, sweet!

Used as a positive response to good news or information.


blow

From Middle English blowen, from Old English blāwan (“to blow, breathe, inflate, sound”), from Proto-West Germanic *blāan, from Proto-Germanic *blēaną (“to blow”) (compare German blähen), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- (“to swell, blow up”) (compare Latin flō (“to blow”) and Old Armenian բեղուն (bełun, “fertile”)).

der

[H]e suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said 'Bother!' and 'Oh blow!' and also 'Hang spring-cleaning!' and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat.

1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, “The River Bank”, in The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, pages 1–2:

(intransitive) Used to express displeasure or frustration.


oil

desctree

French: oui, voui, ouais
Haitian Creole: wi
→ English: oui
Maori: Wīwī (“France”)

Norman: oui (Guernsey)

From o + il, possibly from:
* Vulgar Latin *hoc ille, from Latin hoc + ille (“this [is what] he [said]”), akin to o je, o tu, o nos, o vos, all ‘this’ constructed with other personal pronouns;
* hoc illud (“this is it, lit. this that”).
In any case, an elliptical phrase of response, by semantic erosion/grammaticalization possibly calqued on Gaulish: compare Portuguese and Spanish isso and eso (“yes, yeah”, literally “this”), Celtic languages such as Old Irish tó (“yes”), Welsh do (“indeed”), from *tod (“this, that”).
Compare with Old French o, ou, oc, ec, euc, uoc, Old Occitan oc (Occitan òc), all from the simple Latin hoc.

oïl

almost always used by scholars to disambiguate with other meanings

"Oïl, mout m'an sovient il bien.
Seneschaus, savez vos an rien?

c. 1170, Chrétien de Troyes, Érec et Énide:

Yes, I remember it well
Seneschal, do you know anything about it?


attention

From Middle English attencioun, borrowed from Latin attentio, attentionis, from attendere, past participle attentus (“to attend, give heed to”); see attend.

(military) Used as a command to bring soldiers to the attention position.

A call for people to be quiet/stop doing what they are presently doing and pay heed to what they are to be told or shown.


er

If he—er—disappears—well, it seems to me that we'd both benefit.

Liquid Samurai: 'FORMLESS AND INFINITE ARE WE, THE LIQUID SAMURAI. I SERVE MY QUEEN, AS WE HAVE FOR COUNTLESS--' / Mona: 'HEY, I DON'T MEAN TO INTERRUPT, BUT YOU SEEM LIKE YOU'RE MADE OF POWERFUL STUFF. CAN I, ER, STUDY YOU?'

2019 December 10, Yacht Club Games, "Story" (Mona), in Shovel Knight Showdown (version 4.1), Nintendo Switch


er

Possibly borrowed from English er or is a pronunciation spelling of a in non-rhotic Malay accents.

Er, kita tengah ke mana ni?


slay

From Middle English sleen, slayn, from Old English slēan (“to strike, beat, smite, stamp, forge, sting, slay, kill, impact”), from Proto-West Germanic *slahan, from Proto-Germanic *slahaną (“to fight, strike, kill”), from Proto-Indo-European *slak- (“to hit, strike, throw”).
Cognate with Dutch slaan (“to beat, hit, strike”), Low German slaan (“hit, strike”), German schlagen (“to beat, hit, strike”), Danish, Norwegian and Swedish slå (“to knock, beat, strike”), Icelandic slá (“to strike”). Related to slaughter, onslaught.

cog

Despite its dismal performance at the box office, Jennifer’s Body has become a cult favourite – particularly amongst queer women. The horror-comedy stars Megan Fox as a cheerleader who becomes possessed by a succubus – a demon who seduces men, kills them and devours their flesh etc. Slay!

2024 October 9, Sam Damshenas, “21 LGBTQ+ horror films to watch this Halloween”, in Gay Times:

(chiefly African-American Vernacular and LGBTQ slang) Used to express approval or amazement.


thank you

→ Cantonese: thank you (feng¹ kiu⁴)

desc

→ Japanese: サンキュー (sankyū), サンキュ (sankyu)

→ Korean: 땡큐 (ttaengkyu)

→ Malayalam: താങ്ക്യൂ (tāṅkyū)

→ Mandarin: 三Q (sān kiù)

→ Tagalog: tenkyu

[ˈθeɪ̯ŋk ˌju]

[ˈðeɪ̯ŋk ˌju]

From Middle English thanke yow; as with thank God, praise be to God, and praise the Lord, it was originally a present subjunctive form but is usually not parsed that way in current usage. It has also sometimes been parsed as a prodrop form of (present indicative) I thank you, a mechanism that may plausibly coexist with the other one (instances being variable).

“Thank you!” said the girl after her mom gave her a gift.

“And thank you for being so sweet,” replied her mom.

Jun[ius] […] The General has new Wine, new come over. / He muſt have new Acquaintance for it too, / For I will none, I thank ye. / Pet[ilus] None, I thank ye? / A short and touchy answer. None, I thank ye: / Ye do not scorn it, do ye?

1711, attributed to John Fletcher, “Bonduca, a Tragedy”, in The Works of Mr. Francis Beaumont, and Mr. John Fletcher, volume IV, London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, at Shakespear's Head over-against Catherine-street in the Strand, →OCLC, act I, scene ii, page 2194:

I had some faint recollection of having a penny-piece in my waistcoat pocket, and, pleased with the service he had rendered to us, I gave it him as his guerdon. "Thank ye, sir—thank ye, sir—thank ye, sir," he cried, and immediately returned to his station near the footway.

1826 April 22, “G.”, “The Dukedom (from ‘The News of Literature and Fashion, Science and Art.’)”, in The Spirit of the Times; or, Essence of the Periodicals; Concentrating Every Week, All that is Worthy (as Strictly Regarding the Time) of Being Preserved, from the Whole of Our Newspapers, Magazines, &c., volume I, number XXIX, London: Printed by Milne, Banfield, and Duckworth … for J. Scott, →OCLC, page 436, column 1:

"But, thank you, Lucy, oh, thank you," said Mrs. Dalloway, and thank you, thank you, she went on saying (sitting down on the sofa with her dress over her knees, her scissors, her silks), thank you, thank you, she went on saying in gratitude to her servants generally for helping her to be like this, to be what she wanted, gentle, generous-hearted.

1925 May 14, Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway, London: Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC:

Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing / Thanks for all the joy they're bringing / Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty / What would life be? / Without a song or a dance what are we? / So I say thank you for the music / For giving it to me

1977 December 12, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus (lyrics and music), “Thank You for the Music”, in ABBA: The Album, performed by ABBA:

Thank ya, ma'am, thank ya, thank ya, thank ya. He's a good dog. He likes ever'body. He won' be no bother. Thank ya, ma'am, thank ya, thank ya.

2002, Bill Boyd, “Striking a Deal”, in Stepdaddy: A Creative Memoir, Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, →ISBN, page 96:

Always say "thank you." When in doubt, say "thank you." Say "thank you" even if you think it is not necessary in the circumstances. Whether the recipient thinks it is or is not, it will be appreciated and remembered. It is impossible to say "thank you" too often!

2007, Jerry Goodwin, “Thank You”, in Thank You: One of Seventeen Rules …: Wonderful for Men and Women of All Ages, [Philadelphia, Pa.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 19:

His return text came about an hour later. "I Love you … For all the right reasons," he wrote. "And I'm glad 2 know u feel the true love u have 4 me again … Thank u!! You make me feel like i really am superman!!"

2014 February, Colin McEvoy, Lynn Olanoff, chapter 13, in Fatal Jealousy: The True Story of a Doomed Romance, a Singular Obsession, and a Quadruple Murder (St. Martin's True Crime Library), New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Paperbacks, →ISBN, page 136:

Adrian Shush. / Carl Thank yu. / Adrian Fer what? / Carl Fer staying. / Adrian Man tell mi to. Nuh thank mi. But you must shush.

2014, Roy Williams, Kingston 14, London, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, →ISBN, act II, page 71:

An expression of gratitude or politeness in response to something done or given.

دستت درد نکند (dastet dard nakonad, literally “lest your hand hurt”)

دستت درد نکنه (dastet dard nakone, literally “lest your hand hurt”)

gun robh math agaibh

Argyll; to one person, formal; to more than one person

Near-synonym: please

—May I help you? —Yes, thank you.

—May I help you? —Thank you.

(often with yes) Used as a polite affirmative to accept an offer.

‘No, come in,’ he said. ‘Martin, right? Have a seat.’ […] ‘Thank you, no, I won’t.’ He moved inside a little more.

2015, Amy Andrews, Limbo, Sydney, N.S.W.: Escape Publishing, →ISBN:

A polite dismissal; usually used in professional contexts.


understood

Indicates comprehension on the part of the speaker.


bog

dati cesarju, kar je cesarjevega, in bogu, kar je božjega


what

wot (all only in British, Australian, New Zealand, New York City accents with the wine–whine merger)

From Middle English what, from Old English hwæt (“what”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Germanic *hwat (“what”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷód (“what”), neuter form of *kʷós (“who”). Cognate with Scots whit (“what”), North Frisian wat (“what”), Saterland Frisian wat (“what”), West Frisian wat (“what”), Dutch wat (“what”), Low German wat (“what”), German was (“what”), Danish hvad (“what”), Norwegian Bokmål hva (“what”), Swedish vad (“what”), Norwegian Nynorsk kva (“what”), Icelandic hvað (“what”), Latin quod (“what, which”).

What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

What! That’s amazing!

What? I'm busy.

What do you want? An abrupt, usually unfriendly enquiry as to what a person desires.

“That’s riled them,” said my compaion. “Good work, what?”

1918, Denis Garstin, The Shilling Soldiers, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 83:

Chuffy: WHAT? No, no, no, no, no. My casa is your casa, what?

1991 May 12, “Kidnapped!”, in Jeeves and Wooster, Series 2, Episode 5:

It’s a nice day, what?

(British, colloquial, dated) Clipping of what do you say? Used as a type of tag question to emphasise a statement and invite agreement, often rhetorically.

— Could I have some of those aarrrrrr mmmm ...
— What?

What did you say? I beg your pardon? This usage is often considered impolite, with the more polite "Pardon?" or "Excuse me?" preferred.

I must have been, what, about five years old.

Indicating a guess or approximation, or a pause to try to recall information.


won

Borrowed from Russian вон (von), from Old East Slavic вънъ (vŭnŭ), from Proto-Slavic *vъ́nъ. Compare Old Polish wen.


shot

(colloquial, New Zealand) An expression of gratitude, similar to thank you.


AOL

From the propensity of America Online users for making unnecessary "me too" posts in Usenet discussions.

>Now Black Velvet by Alannah Miles^([sic]) has always sent shivers down my spine, something about her voice.
AOL! I've heard that one being karaoke'd, by someone with a pretty good voice, but it really needs Alannah Miles's vocals to do it justice.

2003 July 8, CCA, “[I] Apropos of Barry White news...”, in alt.fan.pratchett (Usenet):

(Internet slang, humorous) me too, I agree


speed

From Middle English spede (“prosperity, good luck, quickness, success”), from Old English spēd (“success”), from Proto-West Germanic *spōdi (“prosperity, success”), from Proto-West Germanic *spōan, from Proto-Germanic *spōaną (“to prosper, succeed, be happy”), from Proto-Indo-European *speh₁- (“to prosper, turn out well”). Cognate with Scots spede, speid (“success, quickness, speed”), Dutch spoed (“haste; speed”), German Low German Spood (“haste; speed; eagerness; success”), German Sput (“progress, acceleration, haste”). Related also to Old English spōwan (“to be successful, succeed”), Albanian shpejt (“to speed, to hurry”) and Russian спеши́ть (spešítʹ, “to hurry”), Latin spēs (“hope, expectation”), spērō (“hope”, verb), perhaps also to Ancient Greek σπεύδω (speúdō, “to urge on, hasten, press on”).

cog

“Speed,” Carlos, the soundman, said. […]
“Camera.”
“Rolling,” replied Bryce, the cameraman.

2000, Brian J. Hayes, A Boy Scout in Hollywood, page 30:

[…] the director called, “Roll 'em,” the sound man said, “Speed,” and Norling stepped in and said, […]

2012, Tom Mascaro, Into the Fray, page 52:

(film) Called by the soundman when the recording equipment has reached running speed and is ready to go.


kek

ㅋㅋㅋ (keukeukeu) is the childish Korean equivalent of the English "haha". Since this is often used in StarCraft matches, Blizzard, StarCraft’s developers, decided to reference it in World of Warcraft: when a player of the Horde faction types "lol" using the /say messaging command, members of the opposing faction see it as "kek".

Now Freakie boy, for a tasty doggie biscuit, can you try saying that again without any grammatical error?
kek kek kek kek kek

2007 October 13, The Cynic [username], “Re: Nobel Peace belong to me.”, in alt.politics.bush (Usenet):

Top kek.
I can't believe Apple would derp like THAT, at least the Apple of the mid-1980s.

2013 December 11, Steve Nickolas, “Re: 1984 Apple IIe Owner's Manual”, in comp.sys.apple2 (Usenet):

> "an hour or two a day" "chasing old Checkmate posts."
>
>kek

2014 February 19, Checkmate [username] (quoting [Tor] Friendly Neighborhood Vote> Wrangler Emeritus [username]), “Checkmate's Discount House of Spatulas”, in alt.usenet.kooks (Usenet):

(Internet slang, video games) Used to indicate laughter or humour.


pöf

Interjection expressing tiredness or disgust


put

(onomatopoeia) putt, imitating the sound of a low speed internal combustion engine, usually repeated at least twice: put, put.


put

(usually repeated several times) chook (call used to attract chickens)


vel

From Old Danish væl, from Old Norse vel, from Proto-Germanic *wela (“well”), from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁-.

Der er ikke slanger, vel?

Du er ikke sur på mig, vel?


why

From Middle English why, from Old English hwȳ (“why”), from Proto-Germanic *hwī (“by what, how”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷey, instrumental case of *kʷis (“who”), *kʷid (“what”).
Cognate with Old Saxon hwī (“why”), hwiu (“how; why”), Middle High German wiu (“how, why”), archaic Danish and Norwegian Bokmål hvi (“why”), Norwegian Nynorsk kvi (“why”), Swedish vi (“why”), Faroese and Icelandic hví (“why”), Latin quī (“why”), Doric Greek πεῖ (peî, “where”), Ukrainian чи (čy, “if”), Polish czy, Czech či (“or”), Serbo-Croatian či (“if”). Compare Old English þȳ (“because, since, on that account, therefore, then”, literally “by that, for that”). See thy.

Why, that’s ridiculous!    Why, how kind of you!

VVhy Child, I tell thee if I vvas thy Mmother I ſhould not diſovvn thee; Don't you ſee I am as kind to you as if I vvas your Mother?

1724, [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunate Mistress; […] [Roxana], London: […] E. Applebee, […], published 1740, →OCLC, page 242:

(dated or literary) An exclamation used to express pleasant or unpleasant mild surprise, indignation, or impatience.

why buy a book when you can join a library

why buy a book when you can join the library

why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free


nin

Yá pues comer, nin

¿Que quies pa Navidá, nin?

interjection, usually friendly, used at the end of a phrase when speaking usually to children


come

From Middle English comen, cumen, from Old English cuman, from Proto-West Germanic *kweman, from Proto-Germanic *kwemaną (“to come”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷémt (“to step”), from *gʷem- (“to step”).
cognates
Cognate from Proto-Germanic with Scots cum (“to come”), Saterland Frisian kuume (“to come”), West Frisian komme (“to come”), Low German kamen (“to come”), Dutch komen (“to come”), German kommen (“to come”), Norwegian Bokmål and Danish komme (“to come”), Swedish komma (“to come”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Icelandic koma (“to come”).
Cognate from PIE via Latin veniō (“come, arrive”) with many Romance language terms (e.g., French venir, Portuguese vir, Spanish venir), Lithuanian gimti (“to be born, come into the world, arrive”), with terms in Iranian languages (e.g. Avestan 𐬘𐬀𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬍 (jamaⁱtī, “to go”)), via Sanskrit गच्छति (gácchati, “to go”) with many Indic language terms (e.g., Hindi गति (gati)).
Cognate to English basis, from PIE via Ancient Greek.

Come come! Stop crying.

Come now! You must eat it.

(dated or formal) An exclamation to express annoyance.

Come come! You can do it.

Come now! It won't bite you.

Her. What wisdome stirs amongst you? Come Sir, now
I am for you againe: 'Pray you sit by vs,
And tell's a Tale.

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

Come then, pure hands, and bear the head
That sleeps or wears the mask of sleep,
And come, whatever loves to weep,
And hear the ritual of the dead.

1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XVIII, page 30:

“I'm through with all pawn-games,” I laughed. “Come, let us have a game of lansquenet. Either I will take a farewell fall out of you or you will have your sevenfold revenge”.

1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

(dated or formal) An exclamation to express encouragement, or to precede a request.


cough

The noun is derived from Middle English cough (“a cough; illness causing coughing”) [and other forms], from coughen (verb): see etymology 1.
The interjection is probably derived from the noun.

nb...

caughe, cogh, coghe, coght, cohw, coughe, couhe, couth, couwe, couȝe, couȝhe, cowh, cowȝe, coȝgth, kogh, koghe, koghwhe, kouhe, kouȝh, kouȝhe, kouȝwhe, kuowh, kowh

He was—cough—indisposed.

Used to represent the sound of a cough (noun sense 1), especially when focusing attention on a following utterance, often an attribution of blame or a euphemism: ahem.


shoot

Didn't you have a concert tonight? —Shoot! I forgot! I have to go and get ready…

She practically stopped dancing, and started looking over everybody’s heads to see if she could see him. “Oh, shoot!” she said. I'd just about broken her heart—I really had.

1951, J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 96:

A mild expletive, expressing disbelief or disdain


vole

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.


乙

Derived as aggressive clipping of お疲れ様です (otsukaresama desu, used as a kind of greeting at work, literally “that's honorable exhaustion (from hard work)”). The use of 乙 for the spelling is an example of phonetic ateji (当て字).

自演乙

I appreciate your acting (a satire of someone who sock puppeting to praise himself)

お疲れ様です お疲れ様です#Japanese

(Internet slang) Clipping of お疲れ様です (otsukaresama desu).


cut

From Middle English cutten, kitten, kytten, ketten (“to cut”) (compare Scots kut, kit (“to cut”)), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse *kytja, *kutta, from Proto-Germanic *kutjaną, *kuttaną (“to cut”), of uncertain origin, perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *kwetwą (“meat, flesh”) (compare Old Norse kvett (“meat”)). Akin to Middle Swedish kotta (“to cut or carve with a knife”) (compare dialectal Swedish kåta, kuta (“to cut or chip with a knife”), Swedish kuta, kytti (“a knife”)), Norwegian Bokmål kutte (“to cut”), Norwegian Nynorsk kutte (“to cut”), Icelandic kuta (“to cut with a knife”), Old Norse kuti (“small knife”), Norwegian kyttel, kytel, kjutul (“pointed slip of wood used to strip bark”). Displaced native Middle English snithen (from Old English snīþan; compare German schneiden), which still survives in some dialects as snithe or snead. See snide. Adjective sense of "drunk" (now rare and now usually used in the originally jocular derivative form of half-cut) dates from the 17th century, from cut in the leg, to have cut your leg, euphemism for being very drunk.

cog

(film and television) An instruction to cease recording.


cut

(film and television) An instruction to cease recording


cheese

→ Icelandic: sís

→ Japanese: チーズ (chīzu)

Say "cheese"! ... and there we are!

(photography) Said while being photographed, to give the impression of smiling.


bir

onomatopoeic alarm noise of a gannet when attacked at night


there

From Middle English there, ther, thare, thar, thore, from Old English þēr, þǣr, þār (“there; at that place”), from Proto-West Germanic *þār, from Proto-Germanic *þar (“at that place; there”), from Proto-Indo-European *tó-r (“there”), from demonstrative pronominal base *to- (“the, that”) + adverbial suffix *-r̥.
Cognate with Scots thar, thair (“there”), North Frisian dear, deer, där (“there”), Saterland Frisian deer (“there”), West Frisian dêr (“there”), Dutch daar (“there”), Low German dar (“there”), German da, dar- (“there”), Danish der (“there”), Norwegian der (“there”), Swedish där (“there”), Icelandic þar (“in that place, there”).

inh

There, there. Everything is going to turn out all right.

Used to offer encouragement or sympathy.

There! That knot should hold.


きゃあ

ja-pos

きゃあ or キャア • (kyā)

きゃあ (canonical)
キャア (canonical)
kyā (romanization)

→ English: kyaa


wow

Attested since the 16th century; borrowed from Scots wow; ultimately a natural exclamation.

Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class VI § 870. Wonder

Wow, I sure was surprised!

Out on thir wanderand spiritis, wow! thow cryis.

1513, Gavin Douglas, Virgil Æneid (translation) vi. Prol. 19:

An indication of excitement, surprise, astonishment, or pleasure.

Wow! How do they do that?

An expression of amazement, awe, or admiration.

Wow… good job using all of our supplies on the first day.

Used sarcastically to express disapproval of something.


wow

Attested in Older Scots a. 1500. Probably originally imitative. Compare Scottish Gaelic bhòbh (“alas”).

wow (an exclamation of astonishment or amazement)


wow

wow (an indication of excitement or surprise)


wow

Wow, vilken rökare!

Wow, what a rocket [hard shot, in soccer, ice hockey, or the like]!


checkmate

From Middle English chekmat, from Old French eschec mat, from Arabic شَاه مَاتَ (šāh māta), from Classical Persian شاه مات (šāh māt, “the king [is] amazed”).

der

Arabic شَاه مَاتَ (šāh māta)

shah mat

said when making the conclusive move in chess

(chess) Word called out by the victor when making a move that wins the game.

(by extension) Said when one has placed a person in a losing situation with no escape.


こん

こんにちは こんにちは#Japanese

こんばんは こんばんは#Japanese


suck

From Old Swedish sukker, from the root of the verb sucka (“to let out a sigh”).

suck och stön


courage

Inherited from Middle French corage, from Old French corage, from Vulgar Latin *corāticum, from Latin cor.


one thousand

One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, ...

Used in a common chronometric counting scheme, in which each iteration is sequentially numbered and supposed to be approximately one second in length.


sal

LL-Q143 (epo)-Robin van der Vliet-sal.wav

(text messaging) Abbreviation of saluton (“hello”).


sugar

Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch
sugar

From Middle English sugre, sucre, from Middle French sucre, from Old French çucre (circa 13th century), from Old Italian zucchero (or another vernacular of Italy), from Arabic سُكَّر (sukkar), from Persian شکر (šakar), from Middle Persian [script needed] (škl), 𐫢𐫞𐫡 (šqr /šakar/), from Sanskrit शर्करा (śárkarā, “ground or candied sugar", originally "grit, gravel”). Akin to Ancient Greek κρόκη (krókē, “pebble”). Doublet of jaggery and sucro-.

Oh, sugar!

"Oh, sugar! I suppose that's so," reflected Tobias, filling his pipe.

1920, James A. Cooper, Tobias O' the Light: A Story of Cape Cod:

But they do not even hope for such a thing in '08, and fear far worse: Sister Suzanne Thibault, a lifelong Republican so mild she shouts, “Oh, sugar!” when annoyed, posits that if Hillary Clinton were nominated, “She'd get killed, literally assassinated. We have too many right-wing people out there who would do that."

2007, Melinda Henneberger, If They Only Listened to Us: What Women Voters Want Politicians to Hear:

“Oh, sugar.” His room was empty.

2012, Macy Beckett, Sultry with a Twist:


correct

Borrowed from French correct, from Latin correctus (“improved, amended, correct”), past participle of corrigere, conrigere (“to make straight, make right, make better, improve, correct”), from com- (“together”) + combining form of regō, regere (“I rule, make straight”).

Used to indicate acknowledgement or acceptance.


j

Old Coptic: ⲏⲓ (ēi)


fire

From Middle English firen, fyren, furen, from Old English fȳrian (“to make a fire”), from the noun (see above). Cognate with Old Frisian fioria (“to light a fire”), Saterland Frisian fjuurje (“to fire”), Middle Dutch vûren, vueren, vieren (“to set fire”), Dutch vuren (“to fire, shoot”), Old High German fiuren (“to ignite, set on fire”), German feuern (“to fire”).


ano

From the phrase "to je ono" ("that is it"). Compare Slovak áno (“yes”), Polish ano (“yes, indeed”).


ano

(Masuria, Ostróda, Warmia) Used expressively.


ano

Inherited from Proto-Philippine *qanú, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *anu, from Proto-Austronesian *(na-)nu.

an expression of surprise or disbelief: what!


pull

-ʊl (accents with foot–goose merger or full–fool merger)

Verb from Middle English pullen, from Old English pullian (“to pull, draw, tug, pluck off”), of uncertain ultimate origin. Related to West Frisian pûlje (“to shell, husk”), Middle Dutch pullen (“to drink”), Middle Dutch polen (“to peel, strip”), Low German pulen (“to pick, pluck, pull, tear, strip off husks”), Icelandic púla (“to work hard, beat”).
Noun from Middle English pul, pull, pulle, from the verb pullen (“to pull”).

cog

(gun sports) Command used by a target shooter to request that the target be released/launched.


life

From Middle English lyf, from Old English līf, from Proto-West Germanic *līb, from Proto-Germanic *lībą (“life, body”), from *lībaną (“to remain, stay, be left”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to stick, glue”). Cognate with Scots life, leif (“life”), North Frisian liff (“life, limb, person, livelihood”), West Frisian liif (“belly, abdomen”), Dutch lijf (“body”), Low German lif (“body; life, life-force; waist”), German Leib (“body; womb”) and Leben (“life”), Danish, Norwegian and Swedish liv (“life; waist”), Icelandic líf (“life”). Related to belive.

cog

(obsolete) Synonym of God's life (an oath)


bi

A short form of bijë,
from archaic bilë ("daughter, girl").

Fol bi, Dritë!
Speak, therefore, Dritë!

A friendly exclamation to a person (female).

Bi! Po ç'është kjo?

Po ç'është kjo, bi?

An exclamation of surprise (to a female person).


power

From Middle English power, poer, from Old French poeir, from Vulgar Latin potēre, from Latin posse, whence English potent. Compare French pouvoir. Displaced the native Old English anweald.

(Philippines, colloquial) cheer used to express support


bo

We may fairely cry bo-bo-boe; it may well make us hoarse, but it will nothing advaunce it.

1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 37, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

An exclamation used to startle or frighten.


by

From Middle English by, bi, from Old English bī (“by; near; around”), from Proto-West Germanic *bī, from Proto-Germanic *bi (“near; by; around; about”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi.
Cognate with West Frisian by (“by; near”), Afrikaans by (“at; by; near”), Saterland Frisian bie (“near; by”), Dutch bij (“near; by”), German Low German bi (“by; near; at”), German bei (“by; near; at”).

bye

archaic for preposition and adverb, not used for abbreviation, preferred for noun and interjection


lekker

From Dutch lekker, from Middle Dutch lecker, derived from the verb lekken (“lick”). Akin to German lecker.
The noun is a backformation from Dutch lekkers, which is a mass noun derived from the partitive form (as in iets lekkers). In Afrikaans it was reinterpreted as a plural.

Lekker! Jy wou mos!

goody! hah!, used sarcastically to show disapproval, disrespect or contempt


nut

Did you like them boys? I goes.
Nut. She shook her hair.
Neither?
Nut. Right townies.

1995, Alan Warner, Morvern Callar, Vintage, published 2015, page 26:


nut

(Southern Scots) no; used to show disagreement or negation.


k

(colloquial, text messaging, Internet slang) OK


scissors

From Middle English sisours, sisoures (attested since 1350–1400), from Old French cisoires, from Vulgar Latin *cīsōria, plural of Late Latin cīsōrium (“cutting tool”) (compare chisel); from Latin word root -cīsus (compare excise) or caesus, past participle of caedō (“to cut”). Partially displaced native Old English sċēara (“scissors, shears”), whence shears.
* The current spelling, from the 16th century, is due to association with Medieval Latin scissor (“tailor”), from Latin carrying the meaning “carver, cutter”, from scindere (“to split”).

Say, wouldn’t it put your eye out to get a letter from one of the kiddies with the thumb‐prints of that crest not doing a thing but snuggling down in the wax on the envelope? Oh, scissors!

1909, Edward Waterman Townsend, chapter II, in The Climbing Courvatels, New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, page 30:

“Scissors!” he shouted and stuck his finger in his mouth.

1911, William Caine, chapter XIV, in The Revolt at Roskelly’s, New York & London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, page 270:

Then sit down—make yourself at home. Ah, scissors.

1913, Richard Claude Carton, Public Opinion: A Farce in Three Acts, London: Samuel French, Ltd., page 81:


g

(slang) Alternative letter-case form of G


sorry

→ Czech: sorry

→ Dutch: sorry
→ Papiamentu: sòri

→ German: sorry

→ Finnish: sori

→ Hindi: सॉरी (sŏrī)

→ Icelandic: sorrí, sorrý

→ Korean: 쏘리 (ssori)

→ Polish: sorry, sorki

→ Scots: sorry, sorra

→ Spanish: sorry

→ Swedish: sorry

→ Welsh: sorri

→ Luxembourgish: sorry

From Middle English sory, from Old English sāriġ (“feeling or expressing grief, sorry, grieved, sorrowful, sad, mournful, bitter”), from Proto-West Germanic *sairag, from Proto-Germanic *sairagaz (“sad”), from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂yro (“hard, rough, painful”). Cognate with Scots sairie (“sad, grieved”), Saterland Frisian seerich (“sore, inflamed”), West Frisian searich (“sad, sorry”), Low German serig (“sick, scabby”), German dialectal sehrig (“sore, sad, painful”), Swedish sårig. Despite the similarity in form and meaning, not related to sorrow. Equivalent to sore + -y.

다시 한번 더 말씀해주시겠어요?

dasi hanbeon deo malsseumhaejusigesseoyo?

Sorry! I didn't see that you were on the phone.

Sorry about yesterday. — No worries.

죄송해요

little more polite, little less informal

معاف کیجئے (ma'āf kījie, literally “forgive me”)

میں معذرت چاہتا ہوں (ma͠i ma'azirat cāhtā hū̃, literally “I ask forgiveness”)

Sorry? What was that? The phone cut out.

Used as a request for someone to repeat something not heard or understood clearly.

There are four– sorry, five branches of the store locally.

Sorry! Coming through!


sorry

(Hong Kong Cantonese, Singapore Hokkien, Penang Hokkien, colloquial) sorry


sorry

→ Papiamentu: sòri

Je hebt me heel erg pijn gedaan toen je dat zei. — Sorry, dat is nooit mijn bedoeling geweest.

You really hurt me a lot when you said that. — Sorry, that was never my intention.

Je stond op mijn voet! — Oh, sorry!

You were standing on my foot! — Oh, sorry!


sorry

[…]Armin Laschet und Olaf Scholz wollen vor allem die alte BRD bewahren und die Methode Merkel mit, sorry, schwächeren Mitteln prolongieren; […]

2020 December 24, Bernd Ulrich, “Das Jahr, in dem die Normalität zu Ende ging”, in Die Zeit:


sorry

Sorry, brevet låg i fel brevlåda. Råkade öppna.

Sorry, the letter was in the wrong letter box. Opened by mistake.

Det är svårt att sakna något här, så sorry resten av Malmö. Här finns allt.

2024 January 12, Max Wiman, “Sorry, resten av Malmö – på Limhamn finns allt [Sorry, the rest of Malmö - Limhamn has everything]”, in Sydsvenskan:

It's hard to miss something here, so sorry the rest of Malmö. Everything is here.

(informal, casual) sorry (expressing regret)


fact

From Old French fact, from Latin factum (“an act, deed, feat, etc.”); also Medieval Latin for “state, condition, circumstance”; neuter of factus (“done or made”), perfect passive participle of faciō (“do, make”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put, place, set”). Old/Middle French later evolved it into faict and fait. Doublet of feat.

der

Used before making a statement to introduce it as a trustworthy one.


quote

From Middle English quoten, coten (“to mark (a book) with chapter numbers or marginal references”), from Old French coter, from Medieval Latin quotāre (“to distinguish by numbers, number chapters”), itself from Latin quotus (“which, what number (in sequence)”), from quot (“how many”) and related to quis (“who”). The sense developed via “to give as a reference, to cite as an authority” to “to copy out exact words” (since 1680); the business sense “to state the price of a commodity” (1866) revives the etymological meaning. The noun, in the sense of “quotation,” is attested from 1885; see also usage note, below.

Used in speech to indicate the start of a quotation.


when

From Middle English when(ne), whanne, from Old English hwonne, from Proto-West Germanic *hwannē, from Proto-West Germanic *hwan, from Proto-Germanic *hwan (“at what time, when”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷis (interrogative base).
Cognate with Dutch wanneer (“when”) and wen (“when, if”), Low German wannehr (“when”), wann (“when”) and wenn (“if, when”), German wann (“when”) and wenn (“when, if”), Gothic 𐍈𐌰𐌽 (ƕan, “when, how”), Latin quandō (“when”). More at who.
Interjection sense: a playful misunderstanding of "say when" (i.e. say something / speak up when you want me to stop) as "say [the word] when".

der

when Adam was an oakum boy in Chatham Dockyard

you don't look at the mantelpiece when you poke the fire

you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire

When we go out to a restaurant, we're the guys who never say "when" when the waiter is grinding fresh pepper on our salads.

2004, Andy Husbands, Joe Yonan, The Fearless Chef: Innovative Recipes from the Edge of American Cuisine, page 83:

He keeps the bottle in the top bureau drawer; he takes it out, and two glasses, and pours. Say when.
 When, please.

2009, Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin, page 111:

Producers have the power to say "when" when the actress involved is too stressed to continue. That's responsible filmmaking.

2011, Fritz Allhoff, Dave Monroe, Porn - Philosophy for Everyone: How to Think With Kink:

(often humorous) That's enough: a command asking someone to stop adding something, especially an ingredient or portion of food or drink; used in, or as if in, literal response to 'Say when'.

Coordinate term: what

Why when I ſay?[…]Off with my boots, you rogues: you villaines, when?[…]Out you rogue[…]

c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 221, column 2:

Set parſon, ſet, the dice die in my hand: / VVhen parſon, vvhen! vvhat can ye finde no more?

1600, [Michael Drayton, Richard Hathwaye, Anthony Munday, Robert Wilson], The First Part of the True and Honorable Historie, of the Life of Sir John Old-castle, the Good Lord Cobham. […], London: […] [V[alentine] S[immes]] for Thomas Pauier, […], →OCLC:

VVhy vvhen? begin Sir: I muſt ſtay your leiſure.

c. 1615 (date written), Tho[mas] Middleton, “More Dissemblers besides Women. A Comedy”, in Two New Playes. […], London: […] Humphrey Moseley, […], published 1657, →OCLC, Act V, scene i, page 66:


ball

From Middle English bal, ball, balle, from an unattested Old English *beall, *bealla (“round object, ball”) or Old Norse bǫllr (“a ball”), both from Proto-Germanic *balluz, *ballô (“ball”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰol-n- (“ball, bubble”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to blow, inflate, swell”). Cognate with Old Saxon ball, Dutch bal, Old High German bal, ballo (German Ball (“ball”); Ballen (“bale”)). Related forms in Romance are borrowings from Germanic. See also balloon, bale.

(sports) An exclamation to inform players on an adjacent playing area that a loose ball from another game has entered their playing area; typically implies that play should be paused until the ball has been retrieved.

A good tackle (and some bad ones) will bring a cry of "Ball!" from the crowd – a plea for a holding the ball free kick.

2007, “Laws Of The Afl 2007”, in AFL Sydney Swans Rules Zone, archived from the original on 2008-03-22:

Australian rules football
Australian rules football

holding the ball
holding the ball#English

(Australian rules football) An appeal by the crowd for holding the ball against a tackled player.


ы

(Internet slang) lol, used to express laughter. Usually used as "ы-ы-ы", to show the crying sound you make after you were laughing for too long.

(Internet slang) ы? as a closing clause: Understand? Agree?


n

(Internet slang, text messaging) Abbreviation of não (“no”).


pass

Borrowed from French passe, from passer.

(games) pass (I refuse to bet or bid or play)


s

(Brazil, Internet slang, text messaging) Abbreviation of sim (“yes”).


э

э, тыге ойлет аман

oh, eh, uh (expresses different feelings, e.g., surprise, bewilderment, anger, regret)


э

→ Eastern Mari: э (e)

to clearly indicate a protest or reprimand

well, uh; space filler or pause during conversation


何

From Old Japanese, from Proto-Japonic *n-anu-.


content

From Middle English contenten (“to satisfy”), from Latin contentus (“contained; satisfied”), past participle of continēre (“to contain”).


е

Е, прекаляваш!

Е, то бива, бива, ама…

used to express indignation, dissatisfaction, irritation, annoyance

Е! Чухте ли я какво каза!


е

hey (an expression of surprise, curiosity, etc.)

well (an expression of positive attitude to the action)

well (an expression of the speaker's awareness of the completed action or fact)


е

and? (used when the speaker is following what the interlocutor is saying and is asking for further information)


е

Всё кру́то е!


е

(informal, at the beginning of the sentence) hey

Е, шта има?

(informal, at the beginning of the sentence) Used to emphasize the sentence

Е, откуд ти?

(informal, at the beginning of the sentence) Used to express surprise

Е, а види ово.

(informal, at the beginning of the sentence) Used to get attention or change the topic of conversation, especially if followed by а (“and; but”)


play

used to announce the start a game of tennis


salt

Semantic loan from English as in, via an unadapted borrowing from English salt, which is a calque of Tagalog asin, due to homophony with English as in.

Ang init ng araw, salt pare!


о

From Proto-Slavic *o, ultimately a natural expression. Compare Ancient Greek ὦ (ô), Latin ō.

О бо́же, помогни́ ми!

О, каква́ красота́!
O, kakvá krasotá!
Oh, how beautiful!


о

wow (used to express approving amazement)


о

Old Ruthenian: о (o)

Belarusian: о (o)

Carpathian Rusyn: о (o)

Ukrainian: о (o)

Russian: о (o)

From Proto-Slavic *o. Cognates include Old Church Slavonic о (o) and Old Polish o.
Originally a natural expression. Compare Ancient Greek ὦ (ô), Latin ō, Old Irish a, Gothic 𐍉 (ō), Old Armenian ով (ov), Albanian o.

Used before a noun in the vocative; O...


о

Inherited from Old East Slavic о (o), from Proto-Slavic *o, ultimately a natural expression. Compare Ancient Greek ὦ (ô), Latin ō.

О бо́же!


о

О! Уезъ! Больше добра мачка.

1867, Prušakevič, Ivan, “Соломбала, зимою и лѣтомъ [Solombala, in winter and summer]”, in Архангельскiя губернскiя вѣдомости [Arkhangelsk Governorate News], number 85, Arkhangelsk, page 4:


а

А, ето къде си бил!

А, значи ти хареса.

А! Не те видях.

А, Джейн, ти ли си!

used to express surprise or wonder: ah, oh, ha, why

А, пролетните цветя.

А, спомням си старите времена.

Хареса ти, а?

Утре заминаваш, а?

used when you are not certain about something and you would like confirmation: eh, well, right, or translated with a tag question

‘Не съм гладен.’ ‘А?’ ‘Казах, че не съм гладен.’

‘I'm not hungry.’ ‘Eh?’ ‘I said I'm not hungry.’

‘Ne sǎm gladen.’ ‘A?’ ‘Kazah, če ne sǎm gladen.’

А? Какво каза?

(colloquial) used to indicate that one did not hear what was said: eh, huh

А, значи така работело.

А, сега ми дойде наум!

А, да, сетих се!

used to express understanding, recognition, or realization: oh

Изпуснал влака … ама работа, а!

So he missed the train … what a damned nuisance!

А, той ще ми каже!

Ще ми се плезиш, а!

А-а, така не може!

Now, this sort of thing can’t go on/won’t do!

А, Били, така не се говори на майка си!

Now, Billy, that's no way to talk to your mother!

used to express criticism or disapproval: now


а

а, умылышым


а

Compare Lithuanian à, õ, oà (“expression of pain, surprise”), as well as Gothic 𐍉 (ō, “ah!”), Latin ā, āh (“expression of pain, anger”), Ancient Greek ἆ (â, “ah!”)

oh! (expressing surprise or realization)


а

Attested since the 15th century. Probably of onomatopoeic origin. Compare Slovene a, Russian а (a), Lithuanian õ, Latin ō and Ancient Greek ὦ (ô). These could all derive from Proto-Indo-European interjection ō (“oh, ah”), but each form in individual languages could easily be an independent, expressive formation.

а да?


hem

A sound uttered in imitation of clearing the throat (onomatopoeia)

onomatopoeic

imitation

Used to fill in the gap of a pause with a vocalized sound.


hem

interjection expressing doubt and/or hesitation


hem

A sound uttered in imitation of clearing the throat (onomatopoeia).

imitation


唷

(Quanzhou and Philippine Hokkien) Emphatic final particle used to make requests


唅

→? Taiwanese Mandarin: 蛤 (há)

唅？你講啥物？

唅？你讲啥物？

(Taiwanese Hokkien) Used to indicate confusion or pondering when the speaker did not hear or comprehend clearly: huh; hmm; what; pardon?; what did (they/you/he/she) say?

(Taiwanese Hokkien) Used to express doubt or disbelief: huh?; hmm?; what?; oh?; what do you mean?

(Taiwanese Hokkien) Used to express subtle surprise or amusement/astonishment: huh!; oh!; what!

(Taiwanese Hokkien) Used to express consent or agreement or approval: huh ok; oh alright; yeah; sure; ah yes


喂

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声): semantic 口 + phonetic 畏 (OC *quls).

Han compound

hello?; yes? (greeting, used when responding to a call, such as a phone call)

(dated) Response when spoken to directly face-to-face: yes?


唻

Unglottalized form of 了, or 哉 which underwent lenition.

⁶we-yeu ⁷iq-tsaon ⁵tshoe-veq-tsheq-gheq ⁶zy-thi ⁰le

還有一樁猜勿出個事體唻。

还有一桩猜勿出个事体𫪁。

勿是唻

勿是𫪁

Sentence-final particle expressing exclaimation, exaggeration, surprise. ah

儂可以回去唻！

侬可以回去𫪁！

Sentence-final particle expressing a monishing tone.

真也勿清白唻！

真也勿清白𫪁！

Sentence-final particle expressing disapproval.

Your place has five rooms and two are huge!

儂屋裏三房兩廳唻！

侬屋里三房两厅𫪁！

Sentence-final particle expressing envy or blame.

Give up, there's no point in fighting for it with him.

算唻，勿要搭伊去爭唻。

算𫪁，勿要搭伊去争𫪁。

Sentence-final particle used to indicate an imperative.


喔

Particle conveying realization or surprise.


喔

(Taiwanese Hokkien) Emphatic final particle used to make requests


嘘

嘘 (canonical)
嘘 (canonical)
uso (romanization)

Attested in the late Heian period. Possibly cognate with 嘯く (usobuku, “to boast”).

(slang) no way!; unbelievable!; get out of here!; shut up!


嗟

ja-pos

嗟(ああ) or 嗟(アー) • (ā)

嗟 (canonical)
嗟 (canonical)
ā (romanization)


stop

stop (end-of-sentence indicator in telegrams)


stop

cool your heels!, cool your jets!, hold your horses!, stop!, whoa! (slow down)

stop!, whoa! (you should not have done/said that)


stop

said by a player of the game of stop to cease the current turn, after which the players count how many words they wrote

CEP

cidade, estado, país; city, state, country

of meaning a category in the game of stop


у

у, чылт ӧрмаш


у

У!

У, шо?


啊

啊困碎！

Nôm form of a (“Used in the beginning of a sentence to indicate questioning: ah, oh, ha”).


唵

唵 (canonical)
唵 (canonical)
on (romanization)

*/om/ → /omu/ → /oɴ/
From Middle Chinese 唵 (ʔʌm^X), itself a transliteration of Sanskrit ॐ (oṃ).
The goon pronunciation, so likely the initial borrowing.


quiet

From Middle English quiete, from Old French quiet (adjective) and quiete (noun), from Latin quiētus, past participle of quiēscere (“to keep quiet, rest”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷyeh₁- (“rest”). Doublet of coy, quit, and quietus.

Quiet! The children are sleeping.


喝

(Buddhism) an interjection uttered by Zen Buddhist masters to scold their students


唯

唯 (canonical)
i (romanization)
wi (romanization)
ゐ (hiragana historical)

/wi/ → /i/
From Middle Chinese 唯 (MC ywijX).

polite particle used to respond to elders: yes


哈

→? English: har (Manglish & Singlish)

→? Taiwanese Mandarin: 蛤 (há)

→? Tagalog: ha

哈，啥物？

(Hokkien) Used to indicate confusion or pondering when the speaker did not hear or comprehend clearly: huh; hmm; what; pardon?; what did (they/you/he/she) say?

(Hokkien) Used to express doubt or disbelief: huh?; hmm?; what?; oh?; what do you mean?

(Hokkien) Used to express subtle surprise or amusement/astonishment: huh!; oh!; what!

Used to express consent or agreement or approval: huh ok; oh alright; yeah; sure; ah yes


e

From Proto-Uralic *e-. Cognates include Finnish että and Estonian et.

E! Hát Józsi meg hová tűnt?

Itt van, e! (informal)

(folksy) look!, hey! (expressing surprise or wanting to get attention)


e

Onomatopoeic. Compare Italian eh and English eh.

In isolation, a request for repetition or clarification of what has just been said: eh, what

Used as a tag question, to emphasise what goes before or to request that the listener express an opinion about what has been said: eh


e

The Polish orthography is based on the Latin alphabet. No earlier script is known. See the history of Polish orthography article on Wikipedia for more, and e for development of the glyph itself.

pl-ety-letter

(colloquial) hey! (used to call someone's attention)


e

(when prolonged…eee) expression of surprise, satisfaction, admiration


e

(informal, at the beginning of the sentence) hey

E, šta ima?

(informal, at the beginning of the sentence) Used to emphasize the sentence

E, otkud ti?

(informal, at the beginning of the sentence) Used to express surprise

E, a vidi ovo.

(informal, at the beginning of the sentence) Used to get attention or change the topic of conversation, especially if followed by a (“and; but”)


e

E, do smrti bom živel!

(informal, rare, at the beginning of sentences) Used to express happiness when saying something

E, da, seveda.

(informal, at the beginning of sentences) Used to express uneasyness

Kdo je to naredil, e?

(informal, rare, at the end of sentences) Used to form questions


e

E, ga bo že minilo!

(informal, at the beginning of sentences) Used to express indifference to what was said before

E, pa kaj še!

(informal, at the beginning of sentences) Used to express unhappiness


e

E, ganoon e!

E, ano ngayon?

Nandoon siya, e.

Used to acknowledge a statement or situation: well; so

E, sino naman 'yun?

E, ikaw lang din naman 'yun.

Well anyways, that was also only just you.

Used to rhetorically express surprise or suspicion: so; oh; well

E, hindi mo naman kinailangan gawin iyon.

E, magkano naman ito?

Used to introduce the continuation of narration from a previous understood point: and; well; so


naam

First sense borrowed from Arabic نَعَامَة (naʕāma, “ostrich”). Second sense borrowed from Arabic نَعَمْ (naʕam, “yes”).


home

Inherited from Old Catalan home~hom, from Latin hominem (“human”, noun).

Home, no sigues bèstia!

A term of address for a man conveying annoyance, impatience, surprise, disagreement, etc.


home

From Old Galician-Portuguese ome, omẽe, from Latin homō, hominem, from Proto-Italic *hemō, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰm̥mṓ.

-Es o campión do mundo? Contento? -Home!... ― -You're the champion of the world? Are you happy? -Man!... [Of course I'm happy, what kind of question is this?]

man! (expresses surprise, or mild annoyance)


屎

⟨kuso₁⟩ → /kuso/
From Old Japanese, from Proto-Japonic *kusau. Cognate with 臭い (kusai, “stinky, smelly”), 腐る (kusaru, “to rot, to become stinky”).


己

From 己 (ono, reflexive or first-person pronoun, see below) + れ (re, “thing”, demonstrative nominalizer ending).

compound

An interjection expressing anger or chagrin


wee

Dutch: wee

From Old Dutch *wē, from Proto-West Germanic *wai.


aa

Aa, see oled sina.

An interjection expressing recognition -

Aa, saan aru.

An interjection expressing understanding -


aa

Either crosslinguistic or borrowed from any of the many European languages it appears in.

oh, ah (expression of recognition, realization, understanding, etc.)


aa

I agree: expresses listener's agreement with storyteller or speaker


aa

expresses exasperation, criticism or dismay over what another person does or says, said in breathy voice


aa

- Vai vēlies ēst? – Aa.
- Do you want to eat? - Yeah.

yeah, uh-huh (expression of agreement, understanding)


aa

Compare Russian ага (aga), and English uh-huh.

- Ar̃ nóri válgyti? – Aà.
- Do you want to eat? - Yeah.


ए

used to attract attention, used toward someone younger or lower in status than oneself.

oh!
An exclamation used to call attention

An exclamation of understanding, or realization.


ऐ

ऐ, कहाँ जा रहा है बे?
ai, kahā̃ jā rahā hai be?
Hey, where do you think you're going, punk?

literally, “Hey, where are [you] going hey?”


wallah

Borrowed from Arabic وَٱللّٰه (wal-lāh).


wallah

Borrowed from Arabic وَٱللّٰه (wal-lāh, “I swear by God”).


wallah

Borrowed from Arabic وَٱللّٰه (wal-lāh, “I swear by God”), likely via Turkish valla.


wallah

– Är det sant? – Wallah! Jag svär!
– Is that true? – Wallah! I swear!


dzień dobry

desc

дзе́нь до́бры

→ Belarusian: дзе́нь до́бры (dzjénʹ dóbry) (calque)

→ Silesian: dziyń dobry (calque)

де́нь до́брий

→ Ukrainian: де́нь до́брий (dénʹ dóbryj) (calque)

/ˈd͡ʑɛɲ ˈdɔ.brɘ/

Literally, “good day”. The original, now dated, form was dobry dzień (which see for more), which at some point began to be pronounced as dobrydzień (now dated and dialectal) with the stress on -bry-; to prevent the spread of that rural form, the words were rearranged.

(idiomatic) good day, good morning, good afternoon


twenty-three

Uncertain. First attested 17 March 1899.

(US, obsolete) Get lost; get out: leave.


汝

Sound shift from reflexive pronoun 己 (ono), Old Japanese 己 (ono₂).

(vulgar) used as an insult to the second person: you!


breast

/bʲɾʲɨ̞sˠt̪ˠ/

From beir as (“carry off”); the -t is excrescent (compare aríst from arís).

Breast thú!

Breast seo!

Breast í!

expresses disapproval or contempt (generally followed by a disjunctive pronoun)


oh boy

Oh, boy! I can't wait to tell my friends about this!

Oh, boy. This is going to be a lot of work.

Oh, boy. Now what do I do?

I read the news today—oh, boy / About a lucky man who made the grade

1967, Lennon–McCartney (lyrics and music), “A Day in the Life”, in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band:

An expression of dismay, resignation, frustration, or annoyance (sarcastic).


help

From Middle English helpen, from Old English helpan (“to help, aid, assist, benefit, relieve, cure”), from Proto-West Germanic *helpan, Proto-Germanic *helpaną (“to help”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱelb-, *ḱelp- (“to help”).
Cognate with West Frisian helpe (“to help”), Dutch helpen (“to help”), Low German helpen, hölpen (“to help”), German helfen (“to help”), Danish hjælpe (“to help”), Norwegian hjelpe (“to help”), Lithuanian šelpti (“to help, support”).

inh

Southern US, African-American Vernacular, dated

— Take that, you scoundrel.
— Help! Robin, help! (Robin Hood (1973))

A cry of distress or an urgent request for assistance

helpppp that's too funny, did she rlly say that?

(Internet slang, text messaging) A way to signal uncontrollable laughter; implying the risk of dying of laughter and needing assistance.


help

From the bare root of helpi, following the model of English help! considered as internationally understood.


oops

A presumably 'natural' exclamation, attested in writing since 1921. Related to or a variation of whoops (itself attested since 1933). A shortening of whoops-a-daisy, whoopsie-daisy, or oops-a-daisy, which in turn is a mispronunciation of ups-a-daisy or upsy-daisy.

Oops! I left the lid off the ketchup.

Oops, I did it again / I played with your heart, got lost in the game

2000, Max Martin, Rami Yacoub (lyrics and music), “Oops!… I Did It Again”, in Oops!… I Did It Again, performed by Britney Spears:

oeps

used sarcastically to acknowledge a major mistake


uh-oh

Uh-oh! I made a mistake.

Uh-oh. I emerged from the Underground station at London King's Cross the other day to find a dense throng of people filling the main line station's concourse.

2024 August 21, Philip Haigh, “Stranded trains: problems for passengers and operators”, in RAIL, number 1016, page 52:

(informal) An exclamation of error, concern, or awareness of a problem.


unh-uh

Unh-uh. No way!


oh no

/(ˈ)əʊ ˈnəʊ/

Coordinate term: oh well

Oh, no! The rug is on fire!

Oh, no! Did I leave my keys in the car?

An exclamation or expression of alarm, concern, or resentment about a problem or error.


糞

From Old Japanese, in turn from Proto-Japonic *kuso.
Cognate with 臭い (kusai, “stinky, smelly”), 腐る (kusaru, “to rot, to become stinky”).

クソ！玄関の鍵をかけ忘れた！


uh

Onomatopoeia of the natural expression of thought. Compare with er.

onomatopoeic

Onomatopoeia

Uh, who was that?

Expression of thought, confusion, or uncertainty.

хм

the actual pronunciation may not be close to the spelling

Uh, let me see...

Space filler or pause during conversation.

呃

space filler or pause during conversation


uh

Used to express disappointment or disdain.


hence

A later Middle English spelling, retaining the voiceless -s, of hennes (henne + adverbial genitive ending -s), from Old English heonan (“away", "hence”), from a Proto-West Germanic *hin-, from Proto-Germanic *hiz, and Proto-Germanic *-anē.
Cognate with Old Saxon hinan, Old High German hinnan (German hinnen), Dutch heen, Swedish hän. Related to Old English her (“here”).

Zuc[cone]. Hence auant I will marie a woman with no wombe, a creature with two noſes, a wench with no haire rather then remarie thee, […]

1604 (date written), Iohn Marston [i.e., John Marston], Parasitaster, or The Fawne, […], London: […] T[homas] P[urfoot] for W[illiam] C[otton], published 1606, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i:

Mira[nda]. Beſeech you Father.
Proſ[pero]. Hence: hang not on my garments.

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 6, column 1:


aha

From Middle English a ha, aha, natural expression. Equivalent to ah + ha!.

natural expression

Aha! That will work.

An exclamation of understanding, realization, invention, or recognition.

آها

Aha! Now I've got you!

An exclamation of surprise, exaltation, or contempt.


aha

aha, I see (expresion of understanding, realization, invention or recognition)


aha

Like ah (to which it is somehow related), tracing an exact origin is impossible. Probably ultimately a natural expression.

natural expression

uh-huh (indicates that the speaker agrees or is simply still listening)


aha

Aha, itt a hiba!

(colloquial) aha (an exclamation of sudden understanding, realization, or recognition)

(colloquial) uh-huh (used informally in place of a “yes”)


aha

Polish: aha

Silesian: aha

Natural expression. First attested in the second half of the 15th century.

Natural expression

etydate

Odwroczcze szye wszystczy rychlo zapalayøcz szya, gysz my mowyø: aha, aha (qui dicunt mihi: Euge, euge)!

1916 [second half of the 15th century], Stanisław Słoński, editor, Psałterz puławski, Greater Poland, pages 69, 4:

(hapax, attested in Greater Poland) aha (showing surprise)


aha

Słownik staropolski
w:pl:Słownik staropolski

Polish Academy of Sciences
w:Polish Academy of Sciences

aha! (showing that the speaker suddenly remembered something)


ouch

Uncertain. Some sources say the interjection is attested since 1838 (and specifically in American English) and derives ultimately from German autsch, perhaps specifically via Pennsylvania German outch (“cry of pain”), as early attestations of the interjection are from Pennsylvania. However, others say the interjection is a "mere" or "natural" exclamation attested since the mid 1600s, and the 1933 OED cites one instance of a verb "ouch" in 1654, "Sancho Pancas Runs Ouching round the mountaine like a ranck-Asse".

der

Ouch! You stepped on my toe! That hurt!

An expression of one's own physical pain.

Ouch! Her sunburn looks awful.

An expression in sympathy at another's pain.

auts

expression in sympathy at another’s pain

Ouch. How could you say that?

A reply to an insult seen as savage (frequently one that is tongue-in-cheek or joking).

Ouch, I really wanted to do that.

Ouch, one hundred thousand dollars for a car! I could never afford that!

(slang) Expressing surprise at the high price of something.


ouch

interjection expressing a sharp pain: ouch!


hey

From Middle English hey, hei, also without h- in ey, from Old English *hē, ēa (interjection), attested as first element in hēlā, ēalā (“O!, alas!, oh!, lo!”). Cognate with Dutch hé, hei (“hi, hey”), German hei (“hey, wow”), Danish and Swedish hej (“hello, hey”), Faroese hey (“hey, hello”), Old Norse, Icelandic and Norwegian hei (“hey”), Polish hej (“hey, hello”), Romanian hei, Russian эй (ej, “hey”); see heigh. Probably a natural expression, as may be inferred from its presence with similar meaning in many other unrelated languages: for example, Burmese ဟေး (he:), Finnish hei, Unami hè, and Mandarin 哎 (āi), and various sound-alikes as Ancient Greek εἶα (eîa) and Latin eia, eho, Sanskrit हे (he). See also hello.

Hey, look at this!

Hey! Listen!

Hey! Stop that!

Hey! This is new!

Hey! How's it going?

(chiefly US) An informal greeting, similar to hi.

Hey? How's that?

A request for repetition or explanation; an expression of confusion.

"Who 's a cur - now - hey?"

1900, Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim, page vi. 54:

Used as a tag question, to emphasise what goes before or to request that the listener express an opinion about what has been said.

The chorus is "nana na na, nana na na hey hey hey, goodbye".

A meaningless beat marker or extra, filler syllable in song lyrics.

hei

meaningless beat marker, filler syllable


hey

hey aftur!


hey

English: hey

Scots: hey

Yola: ha

From Old English *hē, ēa. See English hey for more.


kata

(Kuyavia) expresses surprise or disdain; for the love of God


kata

(dialectal, Southern Tagalog) let's go! (invitation of doing something together)


oh

Oh! I didn't see you there.

哦

different tone expresses different level of surprise

Oh, wow! That's amazing.

Expression of wonder, amazement, or awe.

Oh, so that's how it works.

Expression of understanding, affirmation, recognition, or realization.

Oh, leave me alone.

A word to precede an offhand or annoyed remark.

Oh, and don't forget your coat.

A word to precede an added comment or afterthought.

Oh, gosh

Oh baby, baby, how was I supposed to know / That something wasn't right here?

1998, Max Martin, ...Baby One More Time (song performed by Britney Spears)

An invocation or address (similar to the vocative in languages with noun declension), often with a term of endearment.

Oh, when will it end?

And oh how stingingly acute, and pungently grievous and tormentive, are the remembrancing Reflections of a separate uncloathed Soul in the other World, upon a review of its mad Choice, foolish Hopes, fruitless Desires […]

1703, Lawrence Smith, The Evidence of Things Not Seen, page 143:

Oh, by what plots, by what forswearings, betrayings, oppressions, imprisonments, tortures, poisonings, and under what reasons of state and politic subtilty, have these forenamed kings […] pulled the vengeance of God upon themselves […]

1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=1 to 5):

Exclamation for drama or emphasis (often poetic).

Oh! That hurt.

"Oh! . . . oh! . . . I can't bear it . . . It is too much . . . I die . . . I am going . . ." were Polly's expressions of extasy

1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC:

I'm off with the raggle-taggle gypsy-oh.

Space filler or extra syllable, especially in (popular) music.

"You should watch where you're going!" "Oh?"

(interrogative) Expression of mild scepticism.

What if he says "Oh, I need to see your ID"?

A word to mark a spoken phrase as imaginary.


oh

oh (expression of awe, surprise, pain or realization)


ah

From Middle English ah, aa, a (“ah”), of imitative origin, or from Old English ēa, *eah (“oh, alas”), from Proto-West Germanic *a, *ah (“ah”). Earliest recorded use is circa 1175 in the Ormulum: A, Maȝȝstre! icc wat tatt tu full wiss Arrt Godess Sune ("Ah, Master! I know for sure that thou art God's Son"). Some propose that the Middle English is borrowed from Old French a (“ah!, oh!, hey!”) (represented by modern French ah).
Compare also West Frisian a, ah (“ah”), Dutch a, ah (“ah”), Middle Low German a (“ah”), Old High German a, aa, ah (“ah, oh”) (whence modern German ah), Faroese áh (“oh, ah, alas”), Icelandic æ, ai (“ah, oh”), Latin ah (“ah”).

onomatopoeic

imitative origin

Ah, I understand now.

Ah! It's good to be back home!

Ah, the flowers of spring.

An expression of relief, relaxation, comfort, confusion, understanding, wonder, awe, etc. according to uttered inflection.

Boy don't try to front, uh, I
Know just, just, what you are, ah, ah.

2008, Britney Spears (lyrics and music), “Womanizer”:

A syllable used to fill space, particularly in music.


ah

Imitative

ah (expression of relief, realization, awe)


ah

Imitative


ah

Partly borrowed from German, English, French, from Latin ah (“ah”), from Proto-Indo-European *ā. Partly also onomatopoeic.
Cognate with Norwegian Bokmål ah, English ah, German ah, French ah and Latin ah.

ah, sikken en dejlig pandekage

used to express pleasure, e.g. because something tastes good or feels nice

"ah, velkommen Albert," sagde Sickert til prinsen

"ah, welcome Albert," said Sickert to the prince

bliver man også nervøs? Ah ikke så meget

used to express reservations, slight disagreement, doubt etc.


ah

Found in a wide variety of languages, including but not limited to Estonian ah, Ingrian ah, Karelian ah, Ludian ah, Veps ah, Votic ah, Hungarian ah, Swedish ah, German ah, English ah, Latin ah. Tracing an exact origin is effectively impossible. Probably ultimately involuntary or natural.


ah

Inherited from Old French a! (“oh! ah! woe!”), of expressive origin.

onomatopoeic

expressive


ah

From Middle High German ā, from Old High German a, ah, from Proto-West Germanic *a, *ah. Cognate with Middle Low German a, Middle English a, aa, ah (whence English ah).


ah

Involuntary expression of emotions: surprise, impatience, desire, sadness, refusal.

1599-1601, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 1 http://hu.wikisource.org/wiki/Hamlet/Negyedik_felvon%C3%A1s,_1._sz%C3%ADn
Ah jó uram, mit láttam én az éjjel!

Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night!


ah

Unknown
* from Arabic آهْ (ʔāh)
* from Peranakan Indonesian ach (“oh”), from Dutch ach (“oh”).

oh, expresses compassion, surprise and dismay


ah

Ultimately a natural sound. Compare Finnish ah and Estonian ah.

Ah kui siä oot käppiä!


ah

(sarcastic) ah! (usually ironic or sarcastic)


ah

Inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ā or perhaps *h₂eh₂.


ah

Ah, ke inenen mai.

Oh!; commonly used as an expression of approval.


ah

ah! (expression of relief, realization, awe)


ah

Imitative


ah

Ah, jag förstår

Ah, det är skönt att få glida ner i jacuzzin och knäcka en kall öl efter ett hårt arbetspass i skogen
Ah, it's nice [feels good] to slip ["get to slip" – redundant, but sounds natural] into the jacuzzi and crack open a cold beer after a session of hard work in the forest

Greven såg ut över sina ägor och tänkte "Ah, underbart!"

The count looked out over his lands ["ownings"] and thought, "Ah, wonderful!"

ah (expression of understanding, relaxation, contentment, etc.)


ah

oh: expressing wonder, amazement, or awe

oh: expressing understanding, recognition, or realization

oh: preceding an offhand or annoyed remark


お願い

お願い (canonical)
onegai (romanization)
onegafi (romanization)
おねがひ (hiragana historical)

2003 March 19 [2001 December 29], Yumi Hotta with Obata, Takeshi, “第(だい)129(ひゃくにじゅうきゅう)局(きょく) もどって来(こ)い！ [Game 129: Come Back!]”, in ヒカルの碁 [Hikaru’s Go], 6th edition, volume 15 (fiction), Tokyo: Shueisha, →ISBN, pages 78–79:

I don’t need anything! I won’t ask to play any more! So, God! I’m begging you! Return things back to the beginning! Turn time back to when I first met him, please!!

オレなんかいらねェ！もう打ちたいって言わねェよ！だから 神さま！お願いだ！はじめにもどして！アイツを会った一番はじめに時間をもどして‼

Ore nan ka ira nē! Mō uchitaitte iwa nē yo! Dakara Kami-sama! Onegai da! Hajime ni modoshite! Aitsu o atta ichiban hajime ni jikan o modoshite‼

used as the word for please, familiar honorific.


fast

From Middle English fast, fest, from Old English fæst (“firm, secure”), from Proto-West Germanic *fast, from Proto-Germanic *fastuz; see it for cognates and further etymology.
The development of “rapid” from an original sense of “secure” apparently happened first in the adverb and then transferred to the adjective; compare hard in expressions like “to run hard”. The original sense of “secure, firm” is now slightly archaic, but retained in the related fasten (“make secure”). Also compare close meaning change from Latin rapiō (“to snatch”) to Latin rapidus (“rapid, quick”), from Irish sciob (“to snatch”) to Irish sciobtha (“quick”).

(archery) Short for "stand fast", a warning not to pass between the arrow and the target


蕉

For pronunciation and definitions of 蕉 – see 𣟼.
(This character is a variant form of 𣟼).
Onomatopoeic.

zh-see

(Cantonese, onomatopoeia) sound of firing a gun


huit

'Huit, Clara, huit! Come on, Osman! Good dogs — huit!'

I put "Harvey" and "Eccles", the strongest and slowest dogs, on a long trace and fastened them to each side of the sledge to provide extra braking power. With a cry of "Up Dogs! Huit!" my team and I began […]

1996, Kevin Walton, Rick Atkinson, Of Dogs and Men: Fifty Years in the Antarctic (page 92)


ha

Attested early 14th century, of onomatopoeic origin. Compare Danish ha, Dutch ha, Finnish ha, Hungarian ha, Latin ha, Latvian ha, Swedish ha.

Ha, ha, ha! That’s funny.

Ha! Checkmate!


ha

"That's well. Well," cried he, now for my turn. Ha! a hit! a hit!"

1844 September, E.M. Walley, “Eighteen Months in Russia”, in The Covenant: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Cause of Odd-fellowship, volume 3, number 9, page 395:

I hit a cross-court forehand. “Ha ha haa. Great! Say, usin' cross-courts and angles like that is how O'Bramowitts beat Riggs."

Mona: Hee! Ha! Ho! Ha! The brain buffet is closed, buddy! Take that! And this!

1999, Mona the Vampire, "Attack of the Living Scarecrow" (season 1, episode 1a)

Ha! Take that, you ugly, stupid devil, you.

2008, Sheryl Foulk Rogers-Ramirez, Look What God Did for Our Marriage, page 37:

'I'm armed, you lot. And if you think you can take me alive . . . Ha! Take that! And that! And that!'

2009, Elizabeth George, In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner:


ha

ha! (an exclamation of triumph or discovery)

(onomatopoeia) ha (a representation of laughter), often repeated


ha

ha (exclamation of surprise or laughter)


ha

Expresses surprise or a sudden sensation.


ha

(poetic) expressing astonishment, fright, or shock

Ha, ha! Mi zúg? … mi éji dal / London utcáin ez?

1857, János Arany, A walesi bárdok (The Bards of Wales), translated by Péter Zollman

[untranslated] what is the din / In London's streets so late?

(regional) drawing attention to some soft sound


ha

Ha, hvað sagðirðu?


ha

expression of excitement or ridicule: ha!


ha

expressing joy or laughter: hurrah!, ha ha!


ha

Onomatopoeic. Compare Danish ha, Finnish häh, Dutch ha, hè, English ha, huh.

Ha? Vad sade du?


ha

Unknown. Possibly from:
* Hokkien 哈 (hâⁿ) or 乎 (hôⁿ / hô͘), according to Manuel (1948)
* English huh? and English hah!.

(informal) interrogative particle, used to express inquiry

(informal) speculative particle, used to express doubt, disbelief

(informal) exclamatory particle, used to express wonder, surprise, excitement

Ganoon, ha?!

Kain ka na, ha.

Tulog na, ha?

(informal) imperative final particle, used to soften requests or commands to have someone do something


ha

From Proto-Turkic [Term?] (“yes”). Compare Azerbaijani hə (“yes”), Turkmen hawa (“yes”), Uzbek ha (“yes”), Uyghur ھەئە (he'e, “yes”), Kazakh иә (iä, “yes”), Southern Altai эйе (eye, “yes”), Tatar әйе (äye, “aye, yes, yea”), Bashkir эйе (eye, “yes”), Chuvash ээх (eeh, “yes”).

Yürüdüm, yürüdüm... — Ha. — ...sonra da eve gittim.

I walked, I walked... — Uh-huh. — ...then I went home.

Ha, sen bize çay getirecektin.

Oh yeah, you were going to bring us some tea.

Üniversiteye gidiyorsun, ha?

Ha. Böyle olacağını biliyordum.

I told you so. I knew this would happen.

Ha? Duymadım.


ha

From Middle English hay, from Old English *hē, ēa (interjection).

Ha-ho! be mee coshes, th'ast ee-pait it, co Joane;

1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 13, page 90:

Hey-ho! by my conscience, you have paid it, quoth John;


ha

what a pity; an interjection used to denote displeasure or disappointment


tack

From Old Swedish þak, from Runic Swedish þakk, from Old Norse þǫkk, from Proto-Germanic *þankō, *þankaz. Cognates include English thank, German Dank, Danish tak and Norwegian Nynorsk takk/Norwegian Bokmål takk.

– Här är grejen du frågade efter. – Tack!
– Here's the thing you asked for. – Thank you!

Tack för hjälpen!

Thanks for the help! / Thanks for helping me out!

Tack för att du hämtade ungarna!

Tack för skjutsen!

Tack för att vi fick komma

Thank you for having us ("Thank you for that we were-allowed-to come")

Vi skulle vilja beställa, tack

Det blir hundra kronor, tack

Stå inte där, tack / är du snäll. Du är i vägen.
Don't stand there, please. You are in the way. (possibly somewhat rude still, like in English – "Ursäkta, skulle du kunna flytta dig lite så att vi kan komma förbi" (Excuse me, could you ["would you be able to," literally] move over a bit so we can get past) is politer)


草

From the resemblance of multiple repetitions of w (w, “LOL”) to grass: wwwwwwwww.
Possibly influenced by the term くすくす (kusukusu), an adverb indicating stifled laughter.


uno

PIE word
 *h₁óynos
Learned borrowing from Spanish uno m (“one”, numeral).

lbor

(Uno) A term said when the number of cards in player’s hand is reduced to one. If another player says this before the one whose hand contains only one card, the player who failed to say 'uno' must draw two cards.


sei

Currently unknown; Latin sapiō should logically yield something like "sabo" or "sepo." Cognate with Galician sei, Spanish sé, Catalan sé, Occitan sai, French sais, Italian so.

(Brazil, sarcastic) yeah, right (sarcastic expression of disbelief)


dame

Inherited from Old French dame, from Late Latin domna, shortened variant of Latin domina.


please

Short for if you please, an intransitive, ergative form taken from if it please you which is a calque of French s’il vous plaît, which replaced pray. If it please you is a present subjunctive form, but most current uses of please are not parsed that way.

الله يرحم يماك

ellāh yarḥam yimmāk, ellāh yirḥam yimmāk

费神 (zh-min-nan) (hùi-sîn, literally “to expend one's spirit; to spend effort; to be troubled with”)

歹势 (zh-min-nan) (pháiⁿ-sè / phái-sè / pháiⁿ-sì, literally “(my) bad form; pardon me”)

请 (zh-min-nan) (chhiáⁿ, literally “to invite; to treat (to a meal, etc.)”)

拜托 (zh-min-nan) (pài-thok, literally “to entrust (one to do something)”)

no single translation exists in Icelandic

(suffixes complying with vowel harmony) -аарай (-aaraj)

Near-synonym: thank you

—May I help you? —Yes, please.

—May I help you? —Please.

(often with yes) Used as an affirmative to an offer.

Oh, please, do we have to hear that again?

So it's safe to let a 10-year-old use a gun? Please.

So now I have to go back there a third time? Please!

en:expression of annoyance, impatience, or exasperation

An expression of annoyance, impatience, or exasperation.

nyt

in questions, colloquiai; after the verb and the subject

puh-lease

for the exaggerated way it is often pronounced as the expression of annoyance


please

Semantic loan from German bitte (“please; excuse me”).

semantic loan

Customer while ordering: Can I get a [unintelligible]? Restaurant employee: Please?

Fellow: May I have a few days off to get married?
Reply, in the Cincinnati idiom by a boss who had heard the sound but not the sense:
Boss: Please?

August 1973, “Bitte or Bitter?”, in Cincinnati, page 109:

Even though I heard it was supposed to be German-Catholic background, there’s only one thing German — they say ‘please’ [for the more common ‘pardon me’], which comes from bitte.

September 1978, Virginia Watson-Rouslin, “A Foreign View”, in Cincinnati, page 110:

[…] He explained in broken English that one of his daughters was ill and he probably could not be there. I did not understand all that he said, so asked, ‘Please?’ per Cincinnati custom. ‘There is no need to plead. I will be there if she is feeling better,’ he replied.

September 1979, “Winners: Contest No. 13—The Laugh’s On Us”, in Cincinnati, volume 12, number 12, page 15:

Cincinnati are some of the most polite persons I have ever met in the US. When asking someone a question, instead of saying “Excuse me,” or “Pardon,” they say “Please?”

5 May 1998, Jose I. Sarasua, “Come to Cincinnati... Please?”, in Cost Engineering, volume 40, number 5, page 9:

By the same token, one contestant who doesn’t hear a particular question could say “Pardon me?” while another could say “Please?” Again, neither would be lying if he said he was from Ohio.

April 2001, Jeff Robinson, “Say what?”, in Ohio Magazine, archived from the original on 2019-04-02, page 77:

In Maine, where as much as a quarter of the population has French ancestry, you may hear a stray hair called a couette, and in parts of Ohio please is used in the same way as the German bitte, to invite a person to repeat something just said — apparently a remnant of the bilingual schooling once available in Cincinnati.

2008, Henry Hitchings, The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English, →ISBN, page 255:

Ellen grew up outside of Cincinnati and believed her own talk was the “norm,” while others were speakers of dialects. She was in graduate school before she learned that not all people say, Please? to mean Can you repeat that?

2011, Ellen McIntyre, Nancy Hulan, Vicky Layne, Reading Instruction for Diverse Classrooms: Research-Based, Culturally Responsive Practice, Guilford Press, →ISBN, page 72:

(Cincinnati) Said as a request to repeat information.


虎

→ English: tora-tora

From Old Japanese to₁ra, from Proto-Japonic *tora.
Pellard (2013, 92) includes to₁ra among words with o₁ excepted from the /-o-/ to /-u-/ vowel-raising rule and not originating from earlier diphthongs. According to Vovin (2021, 111), West Old Japanese *to₁ra, instead of expected *tura, is "anomalous" and possibly "a case of a sporadic analogical development".
Vovin (2013) asserts that this word is same as a Silla place name 刀良 (/*tora/), which matches the Old Japanese phonographic spelling.

(World War II, dated) clipping of 突撃雷撃 (totsugeki raigeki, “lightning attack”), used by Japanese soldiers to warn about an imminent attack.


hah

Shut up, buddy, you've forgotten that I can't run. Now you're the wise guy, hah?

1994, Milton Teichman, Sharon Leder, Truth and Lamentation: Stories and Poems on the Holocaust, page 58:

Isaac Sachs makes a 'Hah?' noise. 'You're not Sixsmith's niece?'

2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN:


hah

Hah! Bu olur işte.


hah

Hah! mı zi wıni va.


moo

The characteristic sound made by a cow or bull.


ni

Native word of debated origin:
# Shortened from nézd (“look!”) ~ nízd (a dialectal variant).
# An onomatopoeia expressing astonishment.

Itt van ni!


ni

Ni la el!


huh

Attested from circa 1600. Compare Dutch hè (“huh”).

Speech disfluency#"Huh" – the universal syllable

Huh? Where did they go?

(with rising pitch) Used to express doubt or confusion.

Huh! I'm sure I locked it when I left.

(with falling pitch) Used to express amusement or subtle surprise.

Where were you last night? Huh?

(with rising pitch) Used to reinforce a question.

all particles appended to the end of a sentence

(belittlement) A: "We should go to an amusement park, it would be fun." B: "Huh."

(agreement) A: "Murder is bad." B: "Huh!"

(slang, with falling pitch) Used either to belittle the issuer of a statement/question, or sarcastically to indicate utter agreement, and that the statement being responded to is an extreme understatement. The intonation is changed to distinguish between the two meanings - implied dullness for belittlement, and feigned surprise for utter agreement.

Huh? Could you speak up?

(informal, with rising pitch) Used to indicate that one did not hear what was said.

It's getting kind of late, huh?

(informal, with falling pitch) Used to create a tag question.

He broke into a dogtrot and ran by us. I don't think he saw us. His voice was coming in little puffs, huh, huh, huh, but he probably didn't notice that either.

1980, Donald McCaig, The Butte Polka: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Rawson, Wade Publishers, Inc., →ISBN, page 251:

It was up so many flights of stairs that people would arrive for meetings drenched in sweat: "They were like huh huh huh [panting] - where the hell are you?!"

2019 May 15, Robert Purchese, quoting Marcin Iwiński, “Seeing Red: The story of CD Projekt”, in Eurogamer, archived from the original on 2023-09-15:

(onomatopoeia) Representing the sound of heavy breathing.

Mr. [Lambert] Wilson says this with a soft chuckle, sounding a bit like huh huh huh.

2010 December 7, Katherine Knorr, “Lambert Wilson: A Man of New Faith”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2016-12-19:

Helen starts laughing, properly now. Huh-huh-huh.

2017, Meg Howrey, The Wanderers, London […]: Scribner, →ISBN, page 173:

(onomatopoeia) Representing a chuckling sound.

Shawn quickly turns around and punches the pale hand, yelling "Huh! Huh! Hi yah'! Huh! Get off me! Yeah!"

1993, Ashaki Boelter, The Nok, Bend, O.R.: Shakalot High Entertainment, published 2006, →ISBN, page 69:

He gets out of the chair, whips off his jacket, and starts closing in on the camera, punching rapidly as he moves. A left hook, a right jab. "Hey, I'm a boxer and a marine! So don't mess with me, man! Semper fi! Marine Corps! They better not mess with me! My critics better not mess with me, man, 'cause I'm gonna beat you up. Huh, huh, huh, huh, huh. Hmm, hmmm, hmm, hmmmm, heeeyah, huh, huh. Hmmm, yeah!"

1995 October 5, Neal Pollack, quoting David Nelson, “King of the Creature Feature”, in Chicago Reader, Chicago, I.L.: Chicago Reader, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-09-15:

Student A has both arms outstretched in a karate motion and shouts out "HUH". Student B receives the sound by putting both arms straight in the air and yelling "HUH". Students on either side of B give B a karate chop by miming a sideways karate chop — without any touching.

2014, Larry Swartz, Dramathemes: Classroom Literacy that Will Excite, Surprise, and Stimulate Learning, Markham, Ont.: Pembroke Publishers Limited, →ISBN, pages 130-131:

HUH-HUH, HI-YAH!

2023, Dwayne Reed, Simon B. Rhymin' Gets in the Game, New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, →ISBN, unnumbered page:

(martial arts) A kiai, shouted as a limb is swung in attack.


huh

Huh? Hoe kan dat?

huh (an exclamation indicating puzzlement)


huh

phew (used to show relief, fatigue, or surprise)


cor

A minced oath or dialectal variant of God.

[…] She perused it with an interested eye and having mastered its contents said, “Cor chase my Aunt Fanny up a gum tree,” adding that you never knew what was going to happen next these days.

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter VII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:


hm

hm (expressing confusion, annoyance, etc.)


mm

An onomatopoeia for a sound made by the human mouth.

mm, paien lukter himmelsk!

(onomatopoeia) An expression used to show contentment for something which smells or tastes good

mm, jeg er ikke helt sikker...

(onomatopoeia) An expression used to show thought, reflection or hesitation

mm, det er jeg helt enig i!

(onomatopoeia) An expression used to express agreement with something


mela

From Arabic بَلَى (balā, “why, certainly!, yes, of course!”), in dialects also with prefixed m-. Compare North Levantine Arabic مبلا (mbala) and Gulf Arabic امبلة (ambala).

inh

Mela, ħa nibdew!


un

Ultimately from Middle Low German un, probably through Latvian un.


mu

From Japanese 無 (mu, “nothing, neither yes nor no”).

der

Mu means "no thing." Like "Quality" it points outside the process of dualistic discrimination. Mu simply says, "No class; not one, not zero, not yes, not no." […] It's a great mistake, a kind of dishonesty, to sweep nature's mu answers under the carpet.

1974, Robert M[aynard] Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow & Company, →ISBN:

Achilles: Oh, but MU is Jōshū’s answer. By saying MU, Jōshū let the other monk know that only by not asking such questions can one know the answer to them.
Tortoise: Jōshū “unasked” the question. […]
Achilles: […] And the answer of “MU” here rejects the premises of the question, which are that one or the other must be chosen.

1979, Douglas Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid:

"Mu," said Kelly Dahl.
On one level mu means only yes, but on a deeper level of Zen it was often used by the master when the acolyte asked a stupid, unanswerable or wrongheaded question such as "Does a dog have the Buddha-nature?" The Master would answer only, "Mu," meaning—I say "yes" but mean "no," but the actual answer is: Unask the question.

1996, Dan Simmons, “Looking for Kelly Dahl”, in The Year's Best Science Fiction, page 424:

The Fifth Patriarch's utterance You say mu [Buddha-nature] because Buddha-nature is emptiness articulates clearly and distinctly the truth that emptiness is not "no". In uttering Buddha-nature-emptiness one does not say "half a pound." One does not say "eight ounces." One says "mu."

2002, Norman Waddell, Masao Abe, The Heart of Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō, page 72:

A monk once asked Master Joshu, 'Has a dog the Buddha Nature or not?' Joshu said, 'Mu!'

2010, Joan Price, Sacred Scriptures of the World Religions, page 70:


ta

Uncertain, but possibly young child's pronunciation of thanks.
Alternatively, derived from Danish tak, from Old Norse þǫkk, from Proto-Germanic *þankō, *þankaz.

Ta for the cup of tea.

(colloquial, chiefly Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) Thanks.

Mommy needs the bottle back. Ta!


ta

Din hija ħaġa importanti, ta, tinsihiex.

This is important, you know, don’t forget it.

Postpositioned after a statement, used for minor emphasis.


ta

(Uruguay) Alternative spelling of tá (“okay”)


fe

Natural expression. First attested in 1624–1639.

onom

Natural expression

ref

Wiesław Morawski (10.12.2018) “FE”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century]

(colloquial) yuck! ick! expressing disgust

(colloquial) no! bad! reprimand of behavior


dag

Dag, yo.

2002 December 2, Michael Chapman; Matthew Chapman, “Teen Girl Squad Issue #1”, in Homestar Runner, spoken by Strong Bad as What's Her Face (Matthew Chapman):

(US, informal) Expressing shock, awe or surprise; used as a general intensifier.


dag

From Dutch dag, shortening of goedendag (“goodday; goodbye”), from goed (“goed, pleasant”) + dag (“day”).


dag

Afrikaans: dag

Berbice Creole Dutch: daki

Negerhollands: dag

→ Indonesian: dag → dah

From Middle Dutch dach, from Old Dutch dag, from Proto-West Germanic *dag, from Proto-Germanic *dagaz.

hello, short for goedendag (“good day”) 'goodday; goodbye'


respect

From Middle English respect, from Old French respect, also respit (“respect, regard, consideration”), from Latin respectus (“a looking at, regard, respect”), perfect passive participle of respiciō (“look at, look back upon, respect”), from re- (“back”) + speciō (“to see”). Doublet of respite.


respect

A: Wah gwaan? B: Respect!

A: Tek it easy. B: Respect!


acción

Borrowed from Latin āctiōnem, from agere.

action (demanding the start of something)


never

From Middle English nevere, navere, nævere, from Old English nǣfre (“never”), equivalent to ne + ever.


em

She was abused by, em... David, I think. That was his name, he's a real em... what's the word, narcissist. You should really stay away from him.

(Scotland, Ireland) a form of hesitant speech, or an expression of uncertainty; um; umm; erm


em

Fossilised (2nd person singular) imperative of emō.


dam

Clipping or Pronunciation spelling of damn.


ca

From Proto-Eskimo *cu(na)- base, “nothing, anything”

Cacaq ang’aqurtau’u? -Ca.


ca

-¿Vas pa la sablera comigo? -¡Cá! Ye mui peligroso con esti tiempu

Are you going to the beach with me? -No way! It's too dangerous with this weather

interjection of negation (no way!) or incredulity


ca

(Spain) Denotes incredulity or negation; oh no!


nah

Colloquial/unarticulated form of no. Compare yeah.


nah

Borrowed from Malay nah or Chinese 拿 (ná, “take”).

Nah, take this. ― Here, take this.

(Manglish, Singlish) here! (when giving something).


nah

See?! That's why you shouldn't eat a lot of fruit.

Nah! Makanya jangan makan buah banyak-banyak (a mother scolding a child who has a stomachache)

I told you so! See?! (at long last the penny's dropped).


nah

Nah! Ambil ini.


nah

From either Bulgarian, Macedonian, or Serbo-Croatian на.

Nah bu kadar bir boyu vardı.

Nah yaparsın!

(vulgar) Makes the following word negative

(vulgar) accompanies the fig sign (compare Russian кукиш)


au

Inherited from Latin au (“oh! ow! oh dear! goodness gracious!”).

inh+

now, let's go (as an incitement to action or to a decision)

ouch (An expression of one's own physical pain)

aha (An Expression of incredulity or doubt)

please (When asking for something in a familiar tone)


au

Au, ip'as!.


au

now (as an incitement to action or to a decision)


au

Negerhollands: au, o

Petjo: aoew

Au, ja dat doet pijn!


au

An exclamation of awe and surprise; wow.


au

Alternative form of hau (“expressing pain or grief; oh! ah!”)


au

From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *au, from Proto-Austronesian *au₂.

(Brunei, Sarawak) Used to express affirmation; yes.


au

ouch (expression of one's own physical pain)


au

ouch (expression of minor physical pain)


שלום

he-interj

שָׁלוֹם • (shalóm)

שָׁלוֹם (canonical)
shalóm (romanization)

Etymologically related to שָׁלָה (šālâ, “to be quiet, tranquil”). Compare also שָׁלַו (šālaw, “to be quiet, at ease”). Common Northwest Semitic, Phoenician 𐤔𐤋𐤌 (šlm /šalōm/), Aramaic שְׁלָמָא (šlāmā) / ܫܠܡܐ (šlāmā), Ugaritic 𐎌𐎍𐎎 (šlm /šalāmu/). Cognate with Arabic سلام (salām).

cog

Aramaic שְׁלָמָא (šlāmā)


שלום

shalom (traditional Jewish greeting or farewell)


bach

boom, bam, pow, wham (used when imitating a sudden, hard hit)


eu

Compare Ancient Greek εὖ (eû, “well”, adverb).


eu

Barranquian: ê

Kristang: yo

Macanese: iou, io, ieu

From Old Galician-Portuguese eu, from Late Latin eo, from Classical Latin egō̆. Doublet of ego.

Dr. Hélio? – Eu!
Dr. Hélio? – Here!

Used to draw attention to oneself after having their name called.