Meh, Add It to the Dictionary

The 30th-anniversary edition of the authoritative Collins English Dictionary will include a new entry suggested by readers: the interjection "meh." An expression of indifference or boredom, it’s believed to have originated in North America. Its spelling was codified on an episode of The Simpsons, the Telegraph reports, in which an apathetic Lisa shouted, “We said meh! M-E-H, meh!”

Meh has become so widespread that English speakers now use it as an adjective as well, as in, “The movie was a bit meh.” The rise of the Internet has helped to formalize spellings for words that would once have been exclusively spoken, one lexicographer says: “It shows people are increasingly writing in a register somewhere in between spoken and written English.” (More dictionary stories.)