Blah
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- This article is about an expression for words that are not important. For a town in Mali, see Bla.
In English, Blah is a nonsense word with no real meaning, but is sometimes used as 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 blah is a word used deliberately to represent other words, rather than as an accidental or temporary interjection into speech.
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's 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 onomatopoeic word associated with vomiting. In this case, the word is often stretched out and guttural to suggest vomiting, to express displeasure, or both.
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.
[edit] Examples of use
Generic placeholder text:
- blah.txt
Negative adjective:
- I feel like blah.
- What's so blah?
- Blah Blah Blah - to show irritation towards someone who speaks monotonously or on a tedious topic. Not important.
- Also, when I...blah - To show a that the speaker forgot what he/she was talking about using blah to end the sentence.
- Blah you - Blah can also be used to replace the word "fuck".
- Mmmmm...blah - to show feelings of indifference
- Blah!-That is disgusting to- to show emotion in an unusual way and to say it is truely disgusting
Other
- In cartoons, if someone is speaking while a character is thinking, the speech can be made into blah as a place holder.
- Saying "Blah Blah Blah" generally means "I am not listening."
- It can also mean that the conversation blah will say something already known e.g. "It is very important and we should blah blah blah..."
- Blah!...I am going home now - Blah can also be used as an attention grabber.
- Blah is also used to to mean insipid or bland when referring to food, at times when referring to entertainment it is used to describe a dull event.
