Questions tagged [interjections]
Words such as "oh", or "wow", which are used to indicate an isolated emotion on the part of the speaker, without an explicit grammatical relationship to the rest of the sentence.
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Hip Hip Hooray!
I am looking for the etymology and history of the cheer “Hip Hip Hooray”. I’m curious due to its interesting entry in Wikipedia, which reads thusly:
The call was recorded in England in the ...
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Where does the use of "why" as an interjection come from?
Examples:
Why, I'd love to.
Why, of course!
I get the concept of starting a sentence with a word not completely related to the overall response, but this one seems to be a particularly odd ...
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What is it called when an interjection is inserted inside another word?
Typically (as far as I can think), the interject is something vulgar.
For example:
Radio-bloody-active (from an episode of Family Guy)
Ri-god-damn-diculuous
Un-fucking-believable"
What is the ...
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You don't want to answer this word-placement question, now do you?
Prompted by this question I got to thinking about the placement of the word now.
If it's placed before the comma, it refers to an immediate condition:
You don't want to answer this word-placement ...
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Origin of "man!", "(oh) boy!", and "oh brother"
Where did these interjections:
man!
(oh) boy!
oh brother
come from, and why are they all male?
If you don’t know their current meanings as interjections, it sounds very strange to say Man! when ...
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"Good bye", "Bye", "Bye bye"
I'm a non-native English speaker and sometimes it's hard for me to pick up the right word in some situations.
Could you, please, explain when it's better to use "goodbye" for ending a conversation, ...
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Origin of the word "duh"
What is the origin of the word "duh" as in the interjection:
— It's hot in the desert.
— Well, duh!
If it is of onomatopoeic origin and only appears in modern English as some sites suggest, I ...
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Yes, no, adverbs, and interjections
There appears to be some disagreement over what function yes and no perform in the following sentences:
Yes, you are right.
No, you are mistaken.
According to ODO (yes, no), they are being used as ...
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Origin of 'tada'
What is the origin of the word tada — as used as an exclamation? Is it an onomatopoeic form of sound effects used in, say, television or does its origin lie elsewhere?
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What does "boy" mean here?
Recently, in a magazine, I read the following line:
It's been an eventful year and boy, has it flown past!
My question is, what does the word "boy" mean here? Is it an idiom? What is its usage?
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How to use the expression "lo and behold"
How should this expression be used, and what is its origin?
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'What ho!' of Bertie Wooster
"What ho!" - this strange form of greeting is used all the time by Bertie Wooster, a character of well-known "Jeeves and Wooster" stories by P. G. Wodehouse.
Bertie Wooster: Oh, what ho, Sir ...
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What part of speech are non-human "interjections" like "oink" and "bang"?
As a spin-off from this comment:
If a human exclaims something like "ouch!", I believe it's considered an interjection.
But if a pig exclaims "oink!", what is the part of speech?
And if a bell goes ...
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Was Old English "ēalās" equivalent to Modern English "hello"?
In a question in the Spanish Language site about the origin of Spanish hola 'hello', one of the answers states that Old English ēalās, written ēalā before a name, already sounded quite similar to hola,...
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Interjection "et voilà"
I know et voilà is a French interjection and means there it is.
It is very much used in the US. Why is the use of et voilà so popular in the US?
Which historical fact has made it so popular?
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"Oh, dear!" vs. "Oh dear!"
Which is correct, "Oh, dear!" or "Oh dear!"?
My understanding is that the word oh is an interjection, and should thus be followed by a comma. However, is the second usage the correct one because the ...
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Origin of "guy" as an interjection substituting for "gosh" or "golly"?
Is anyone familiar with, or know the origin of, the use of "guy" as an interjection at the beginning of a sentence, as a substitute for "gosh!" or "golly!" (or "God"?) ?
For example:
"Guy, Holl, ...
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Origin of the phrase "Oh, Dear!"
When something bad happens, sometimes you'll hear Oh, dear! or Oh, dear me!
Why is this? Is it a shorter version of another phrase that makes sense in these situations?
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How is "erm" pronounced in the UK, and why is it spelled that way?
I see the interjection "erm" written in internet forum posts fairly often, and I have occasionally seen it in British novels, in opinion pieces and articles on cultural topics in newspapers and ...
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What are specific cartoon-type interjections like "cough" and "sigh" called in English?
In comics, for example those by Walt Disney, interjections that describe or emphasize in words what the characters in the image are doing are quite commonly used (cough, sigh, tweet).
According to ...
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Usage of "as if" as interjection
My question concerns the usage of "as if" as an idiomatic interjection. The references I have consulted (etymonline, online dictionaries, etc.) seem to agree that "as if" is used in this context to ...
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Grammatical explanation of "what the blank"
In emphatic questions, it's common to see or hear an interjection such as the heck — or something more vulgar — between the interrogative and the verb.
What was that?
becomes
What the heck was ...
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Interjection for a longing sigh
Is there an injection or at least an onomatopoeia for a longing sigh that works in writing?
An example would be two colleagues are talking about the new member of the team on which one has a huge ...
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How should "aargh" really be pronounced?
The common interjections "argh!", "aargh!", "aaargh!", etc., is pronounced, as far as I know, the same as "aaa!" For most of my life, however, I (and I imagine many other second language speakers) ...
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“passf***ingport” is it a bad use of interjection?
I was just having a little conversation with a few friends, and I used the word ‘passfuckingport’ out of nowhere. I am not sure what it sparked - my Western friends where alright with it, but one of ...
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Would "Greetings" be a better word to greet someone any time than the word "Hello"?
Would "greetings" be a better word to greet someone anytime than the word "hello"?
Let say I meet Mr. Jackson at 2pm and Mr. Anderson at 7pm. Would it be better to greet them as "Greetings Mr. ...
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Does the interjection "steady on!" mean something to a Brit?
More from the BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens' Bleak House. In this particular scene, one character, Sergeant George, is infuriated at another character, Mr. Smallwood, his petty landlord come to ...
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Why is there "the" in "oh the horror"?
I am wondering about the interjection "oh, the horror!". If it should be treated as an interjection directed to "horror" (there are similar expressions in other languages), why does it use the article ...
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What is the origin of the dated British expression "I say!"
It doesn't appear that this expression was a minced oath or something along those lines. Was it shortened from a longer phrase, or did it just enter the vernacular as is (similar to "listen up" or "...
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Origin of "Period" and "Full Stop" as Interjections
In North America and the UK, "period" and "full stop" are used as interjections "to indicate that a decision is irrevocable or that a point is no longer discussable" (sense 23, here). For example, "We'...
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What is the origin of "woof!"?
We know that woof is the sound a dog makes when barking. It is used both as a noun and a verb. The word is onomatopoeic but it is also used as an interjection. People woof too when they are attracted ...
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Origin of the word "whee"
What is the origin of the word whee, used as an interjection to express enjoyment or delight?
The only information I can find is that it is "natural exclamation" first recorded in the 1920's. ...
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Is any utterance in English used only by men or only by women?
In my native language, there are some interjections used only by women. For example Va (pronounced /vʌ/), is an exclamation used to express surprise only by women. If any man happens to use them, he ...
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Fitting interjection for "that's nothing"
What would be an appropriate interjection to express little bit of disdain, like
I made it in 30 minutes.
Aaah, that's nothing, my friend did it in 15.
Is there something more fitting than "...
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Onomatopoeia for disgust [duplicate]
Are there any English onomatopoeias for disgust / loathe? What exclamations are commonly used to express repulsion?
Something that could be used like:
(___) dog shit. I loathe it! (some sound here)...
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What is a more modern variant of the interjection 'Lo!"
What is a more modern variant of the interjection 'Lo!"
I'm looking for a single word which has the same effect but is less archaic.
It is a very formal context I want to use it in that you may ...
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What's the origin of saying "yoo hoo!" to get someone's attention?
A character in D.H. Lawrence's novel Women in Love (published 1920) calls out, "Shu-hu!" to hail her sister in a crowded place.
This must be the same as "yoo hoo". What is the source of this ...
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What's a common interjection for the reaction to something creepy and disgusting (like some insects or spooky places, etc.)?
For example,
A: - Look! There is a centipede on the table!
B: - (interjection)!
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Is it a splice comma if an interjection-phrase is involved?
It's certainly poor style, if not actually wrong, to join independent clauses with a comma when a semicolon or other punctuation would have sufficed. But interjections are usually offset from other ...
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"Enter the Fairies" after a sudden clatter or crash?
In my family, who originate from Scotalnd, people cry "enter the fairies!" if something has caused a sudden crash, smash or clatter.
I am guessing it comes from a stage direction, such as from ...
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Term for a word used to pad a sentence while the speaker thinks of what to say next [duplicate]
Is there a word for a term employed to play for time and allow the speaker a little longer to work out what he/she wants to say next?
Words like um and er fall into this category, of course, but so (...
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What is the correct way to write the interjection "ha ha?"
I had a hard time finding the English origin of this interjection and how it technically should be written. I am often ridiculed in written conversations, especially those that are informal, because I ...
user4012
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The word "pew" (P.U., etc.) and positive or neutral connotation
Normally, whenever I've heard the word "pew" (or its Bugs Bunny-esque cousin P.U.), it's applied to a bad smell of some kind. I just started learning an old folk song from the Appalachians called "...
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History of "oh well"
"Oh well" is an interjection used to express acquiescence or resignation towards an undesirable event which has occurred (maybe this isn't the most precise definition, but I think most native English ...
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"why oh why" or "why, oh why"? [closed]
Is this punctuated correctly?
If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow,
Why oh why can’t I?"
Or should “oh why” be set off by commas?
If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow,
...
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Interjection of exasperation or frustration when something is not working properly
When I am exasperated or frustrated when something is not working properly. Not like shit or fuck, those are just "something bad is happening", and too broad. I want something that's more like ...
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Wow vs Whoa, what is the difference between them in the US?
I searched here wow and here whoa and they seem to be pronounced differently. I'm concerned only when the meaning is to signify surprise. However, I'm not sure when to use one or the other, since both ...
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Is there a name/term for "multiplied vowels"?
For example if somebody is saying:
"Ooooooh myyyyyyy Gooooood" or if they realize something and go "Ooooooh!" or Darth Vader's "NOOOOOOO!", usually all of these extra vowels aren't included in the ...
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Interjection said to a fisherman/angler for good luck
In some other languages, there are interjections said to a fisherman (especially to an angler) for good luck, other than "good luck!" itself.
Is there any in English too?
I suppose, "good luck" is a ...
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Use of "measles" as an interjection
I have a friend from Illinois USA who uses measles as an exclamation of frustration or disappointment. For example,
Measles! My flight was just canceled.
I find this odd. Is it commonly used this ...
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