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I just did a search on the word "meh" on this forum. There were 471 occurrences (472 now). It is such a great word, 3 letters that speak volumes, at least in the context of food. When you hear it used by a fellow food aficianado, you know exactly what they mean. In certain situations, it is the perfect word to use. Are there any other similar words you can think of?

There's meh's cousin feh, used by Jewish Grandmothers throughout the ages to denote food so bad, it's not worth eating. Arby's "roast beef" sandwich? FEH!

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Steve Z.
Photographer/Pseudojournalist

"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child

I actually hate "meh". I think it's a lazy shorthand. If you don't like something, tell me why.

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-Josh

An amuse bouche at breakfast is called a Bloody Mary - Scott Manlin

Pffft

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The cake is a lie

Related to this topic, a great joke from a standup comic who's name I can't remember:

I went to P.F. Chang's the other night.
Who are they trying to kid with that name?
I don't think the "P.F." was originally part of it.
I think some guy ate there, looked at the name and went, "Pffft, Chang's?"

Love that.

Buddy

I think "meh" means something's so-so, not good, not bad. I'm not sure, though, when "meh" replaced "eh," which means the same thing.

"Feh," as stevez points out, is much more strongly negative.

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LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008

First time I heard it was on a Simpson's episode, at least ten years ago.

Buddy

I too dislike meh. I think it means something not really worth eating but not actively bad. I think meh grew from eh but I do not know when. Feh I have not heard much but I did not have a jewish grandmother.....

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Toria

"I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it" - As You Like It,
W. Shakespeare

You don't know what you missed...

Buddy

In my home "feh" was not reserved for food only. Anything displeasing would rate it.

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"In pursuit of joys untasted"
from Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata

That's true. Feh could be used for anything from a bad sandwich to your scruffy friend from college.

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Steve Z.
Photographer/Pseudojournalist

"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child

I know I missed some good chicken soup.

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Toria

"I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it" - As You Like It,
W. Shakespeare

Ok, I can see how "meh" could be lazy shorthand, but no more than "good" or "bad" or "OK", if there is no additional description. It is just that "meh" has a more complex meaning, especially when used in reference to food. It could mean, if you are in the neighborhood it is an OK choice, or if you are limited to a certain number of choices, or it doesn't live up to its hype, but if your brother in law insists you try it.... I guess it is just that I have never seen it used anywhere else. "Feh" is an interesting word. I love Yiddish, the words are so onomatopoeic. The Chinese have an expression: Horse Horse Tiger Tiger, which I think basically translates to "meh".

"Nuanced" is another overused word in food writing and in general.

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"I would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."

Perhaps it is just that I have family members who use the word "meh" with great expression, but it sees pretty specific to me. "I ate it, and you would too if you happened to be there, but it's not really worth describing, and don't go out of your way for it." A step above "so-so" but not as good as "all right." The meaning of "okay" can't be added to this list because it is totally dependent on how it is said.

I hear 'meh' most often used by people who spend most of their hours indoors on computers, watching the world go by instead of being in it and chancing to form and defend their own views about it. 'Meh' is what someone says after watching 2001: A Space Odyssey, just to feel safely superior.

Which is a shame because, like bacon, 'meh' is just right in choice contexts.

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pizza fun

Food that's "meh" deserves no further descriptive effort than "meh." That, IMO, is the beauty of the term.

=R=

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I just wanna live until I gotta die. I know I ain't perfect but God knows I try. --Todd Snider

Twitter: ronniesuburban

I think "meh" is a pretty common web word. I remember using waaay back in 2001 in the poker forums. " he called and turned over two pair. Meh."

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http://eatpizzeriavalentino.com
http://valentinopasta.com

I believe we have also said it in this way: "Meh. It won't kill you."

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I want to have a good body, but not as much as I want dessert. ~ Jason Love
There is no pie in Nighthawks, which is why it's such a desolate image. ~ Happy Stomach
I can't go to Hollywood. I got biscuits to make. ~ Dwight Henry

Late-Nite Eats Database

Same here. At least that's when I remember it becoming popularized. I may have heard it earlier than that. The earliest internet sites for the word I could find are circa 1992, and the Simpsons episode was 1995. And "meh" is different from "feh."
"Meh" is indifference. "Feh" is more like dismissal. There is speculation that "meh" is a corruption of Yiddish "mnyeh" or "mneh." I've never associated it with foodies. It's just a part of the general lexicon, at least among my generation (I'm 37), both in speech and writing.

Lenny Bruce said "feh" was the call of a Jewish seagull.

Buddy

I think Ronnie Suburban and Judy H got the utility and nuance of "meh" just right. We can't blame the word for the fact that it's "trending" or misused, or lazily used.

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"Strange how potent cheap music is."

According to Wikipedia, "meh" was first used on The Simpsons in 1992:

"The word gained popularity as a result of its use on The Simpsons. It was first used in passing during the 1992 episode Homer's Triple Bypass, when Lisa describes her generation's nonchalance regarding events such as her father's open heart surgery. It was also used in a 1994 episode, "Sideshow Bob Roberts", when a librarian reacts to Lisa's surprise that voting records are not classified, and also in "Lisa's Wedding" after Marge weaves "Hi Bart" on a loom to try to pique his interest in weaving, to which he responds "meh". In the 2001 episode "Hungry, Hungry Homer", Lisa spells out the word for emphasis ("M - E - H") after Homer tries to interest her (Lisa) and Bart into going to the theme park "Blockoland".
As early as 1992, however, the word appeared in a posting to a Usenet Internet forum in a discussion referring to the TV series Melrose Place. The word's first mainstream print usage occurred in the Canadian newspaper the Edmonton Sun in 2003: "Ryan Opray got voted off Survivor. Meh."

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"Life is a combination of magic and pasta." -- Federico Fellini

Wikipedia is wrong. Lisa says "ehh" not "meh" in that episode.

Link to script



If you listen at 12:32 here, it's clearly "eh," not "meh."

This is what I love about this forum. We are now doing a frame by frame analysis of a Simpsons episode, as if it were the Zapruder film.
I'm guilty of using "meh" but I agree that "feh" is much more descriptive.

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"Goldie, how many times have I told you guys that I don't want no horsin' around on the airplane?" Maj. Kong

Yeah, total geeking out, I agree. But I'm a lover of etymology and linguistics.

That 1992 Usenet reference listed, for Melrose Place, is the earliest I've been able to find, too. I'm surprised that the first mainstream usage in print wasn't until 2003. I was in college from '93-'98, and I first encountered "feh" there, but towards my later years, I learned "meh," as well. Memory can be a funny thing, but I remember it to be a common word of indifference by the time I graduated in 1998.

I third this statement. Meh is in later episodes.

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I want to have a good body, but not as much as I want dessert. ~ Jason Love
There is no pie in Nighthawks, which is why it's such a desolate image. ~ Happy Stomach
I can't go to Hollywood. I got biscuits to make. ~ Dwight Henry

Late-Nite Eats Database

I love this.

Friends who I am pretty sure aren't on LTH went to a restaurant on Monday night, and asked me to go, but I couldn't make it. When I asked them about it after, they said .

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Leek
SAVING ONE DOG MAY NOT CHANGE THE WORLD, BUT IT CHANGES THE WORLD FOR THAT ONE DOG.
American Brittany Rescue always needs foster homes. Please think about helping that one dog.
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To place this dialogue back on the OP's
original thought,
there's a word that Zimmerman on Bizarre Foods uses so often in describing something-
that if you were doing an impression of him, you would be forced to
include the adjective....."Minerally".

Additionally- as previously on LTH that Foodie Speak often will sound like this!
http://youtu.be/i86E-a0YKnI

That is a weird adjective, especially since minerals have very different flavors from salty to sour to none. At least it beats describing something as "rusty" tasting.