blah

English

Alternative forms

• bla, blaa

Etymology

• Sense “Idle, meaningless talk” (1940), probably imitative or echoic in origin. Compare Greek "barbarbar” ‘unintelligible sounds’ (Grillo 1989:174).
• Adjective sense “bland, dull” (1919), perhaps influenced by French blasé (“bored, indifferent”).
• The blahs (“boredom, mild depression”) first attested 1969; extension of adjective sense and influenced by term the blues.
• Also may be connected with bleat

GRILLO, R.D. 1989. Dominant languages: Language and hierarchy in Britain and France. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /blɑː/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /bla/
• Rhymes: -ɑː

Noun

blah (countable and uncountable, plural blahs)

1. (uncountable, informal) Nonsense; drivel; idle, meaningless talk.
2. (informal) (in plural, the blahs) A general or ambiguous feeling of discomfort, dissatisfaction, uneasiness, boredom, mild depression, etc.

Synonyms

• (nonsense, drivel): bosh, bombast, bunkum, claptrap, eyewash, fustian, rant, hooey, humbug, rubbish, twaddle
• (feeling of boredom, mild depression): malaise

Translations

nonsense talk

• Albanian: dërdëllitje (sq) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 阿巴阿巴 (zh) (ābā'ābā)

• Finnish: höpöpuhe, höpinä, höpötys (fi)
• French: bla-bla (fr) m, blabla (fr) m
• German: Blabla (de) n, Gelaber (de) n
• Italian: bla, bla bla, bla bla bla
• Polish: ple ple n, ecie-pecie n
• Portuguese: blablablá (pt) m
• Russian: балабольство (ru) n (balabolʹstvo)
• Spanish: bla (es), blablablá m, bla-bla-bla m
• Swedish: bla (sv), blabla, blablabla

Adjective

blah (comparative more blah, superlative most blah)

1. (informal) Dull; uninteresting; insipid.

   Well, the new restaurant seems nice, but their menu is a little blah.

   • 2001, Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections:

     He was struck by how much pleasure they seemed to take in their daytime lives, how blah their night work was by contrast, how altogether meaningless; […]

2. (informal) Low in spirit or health; down.

   I decided to go exercise rather than sit around all day feeling blah.

Interjection

blah

1. An expression of mild frustration.

   Synonyms: bah, blast, drat, (archaic) fie

   Blah! Why can't I get this computer to work!

2. (When spoken repeatedly, often three times in succession: blah blah blah!) Imitative of idle, meaningless talk; used sometimes in a slightly derogatory manner to mock or downplay another's words, or to show disinterest in a diatribe, rant, instructions, unsolicited advice, parenting, etc. Also used when recalling and retelling another's words, as a substitute for the portions of the speech deemed irrelevant.

   Synonyms: blah blah, blah blah blah, yada yada yada

   Yeah, yeah, blah blah blah, Mom, you said this all yesterday.

   And then he was like, "Oh, my brother's an Internet millionaire, blah blah blah." Like I care!

3. Representing the sound of vomiting.

   Synonyms: bleah, blech, bleh

Translations

expression of mild frustration

• Finnish: plääh

imitative of meaningless talk

• Finnish: pälä, blaa
• Portuguese: blá (pt)
• Russian: бла̀-бла̀-бла́ (ru) (blà-blà-blá)

the sound of vomiting

• Finnish: yök (fi)
• Spanish: bluaa, bluaaa

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Turkish: ^{(please verify)} falan (tr)

Verb

blah (third-person singular simple present blahs, present participle blahing, simple past and past participle blahed)

1. (intransitive) To utter idle, meaningless talk.
   • 2014, Shelagh Stephenson, Ancient Lights, page 28:

     Ooh, I feel so guilty, I've got far too much money — […] So give it away, endow a charitable foundation, burn it, but stop blahing on about it […]

   • 2015 August 29, Tony Blair, The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Someone else said to me: “If you’re writing something again, don’t blah on about winning elections; it really offends them.”

Derived terms

• blahg

 

See also

• barbarian
• rhubarb

Anagrams

• Bahl

Puoc

Adjective

blah

1. bright

Noun

blah

1. moon