Blah

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Blah is a word used in spoken English. Blah is an expression for words that are not important. It is not often seen in formal writing, except when transcribing speech. It differs from a speech disfluency such as "um" or "er" in that it is a deliberately used word used to represent another word, rather than an accidental or temporary interjection into speech. Blah is commonly used as an adjective meaning boring. It is also used in a similar way to etc.

Blah is a token word with no meaning of its own, usually used to illustrate generic, boring speech. It may be used to fill in blank space, or to replace another word or phrase. It is for this last purpose that blah is sometimes assumed to mean something negative because it is used to replace a word that may be unpleasant, but blah itself is neutral. If spoken aloud the tone can usually be used to determine the speaker's intent.

Blah can also work as an onomatopoetic word associated with vomiting. In this case, the word is often stretched out and guttural to suggest vomiting.

Also, people who feel yucky and/ or sleepy might exclaim "Blah!" to illustrate their displeasure.

Blah is also used within a compound noun, suggesting a psychological state or expressing an opinion; for example, February blahs describes a generally depressed condition during winter.

One theory of the origin of the word is that its use as a replacement for droning speech is echoic and that its use as a word meaning "bland" or "dull" derives from the French word blasé.[link]

Blah is also a nonsense word, having no real meaning. It is also used as filler in a sentence.

Examples of use

Generic speech:

He was saying, "'blah, blah, blah...' and was not listening to me."
"The technology advances, people work less, and blah blah blah, it goes on and on, you know." She explained.

Or using the word blah, just for a substitute for an answer...

The lecture was so boring, all the audience heard was 'blah, blah, blah'.
The schoolteacher in the classic cartoon strip Peanuts is often shown as saying 'blahblahblah', as a device to indicate that the character is not listening or understanding what the teacher is saying.

Generic replacement:

blah.txt
printf("blah\n");
[Example]

Negative replacement:

I feel blah.
What is so blah, Isabella?
The present government is blah.
Blah Blah blah blah blah - to show irritation towards someone who continues to talk, usually nonsense.
To blah blah with you - to hell with you

Blah

Examples of use

See also