Sunday, March 1, 2020
Blah, Blah, Blah
Blah, Blah, Blah Blah, Blah, Blah Blah, Blah, Blah By Maeve Maddox Since ancient times, speakers of every language have made up nonsense syllables to indicate contempt for what other people were saying to them. Weââ¬â¢ve even inherited the ancient Greek nonsense syllables bar-bar-bar in the word barbarian: The Greek word barbaros meant ââ¬Å"foreign, strange, ignorant.â⬠According to the OnlineEtymology Dictionary, the word barbaros was an onomatopoeic formation echoing the unintelligible speech of a foreigner. The most common nonsense syllable used to represent empty talk in the United States is blah: The earliest OED documentation of blah in the sense of ââ¬Å"meaningless, insincere, or pretentious talk or writing; nonsense, bunkumâ⬠is 1918. Blah is usually repeated when the sense is ââ¬Å"empty talkâ⬠: When big data is just so much ââ¬Å"blah, blah, blahâ⬠Getting Past ââ¬Å"Blah, Blah, Blahâ⬠When Talking to Prospects Sometimes a single blah means the same thing: Ive been overwhelmed by the amount of jabber in the world ââ¬â its a vast cloud of blah. As a plural noun, ââ¬Å"the blahsâ⬠are a state of despondency: Youââ¬â¢ve got the blahs. à Youââ¬â¢re not feeling hopeless, but youââ¬â¢re not feeling good either. As an adjective, blah means ââ¬Å"lethargic, unenthusiastic, listless, or torpidâ⬠: What to Do When You Feel Blah About Your Job ââ¬Å"Blah, blah, blahâ⬠recently found its way into the news when a political candidate in Oregon blasted a newspaper reporter who demonstrated his lack of interest in what another candidate was saying by writing down ââ¬Å"blah, blah, blahâ⬠instead of her actual words. And perhaps the longest sequence to date of this string of nonsense syllables occurs in a television ad in which actor Gary Oldman holds a telephone to his ear and says ââ¬Å"blah blah blahâ⬠for five seconds straight. Another set of nonsense syllables is ââ¬Å"yada yada yada.â⬠Variations of this utterance are documented in the OED beginning in 1947. I first heard it on the Jerry Seinfeld show where I understood it to mean ââ¬Å"details too boring to mention.â⬠Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Incorrect Pronunciations That You Should AvoidThe Four Sounds of the Spelling OU"To Tide You Over"
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