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Some have speculated that the term's origin is Yiddish because of its similarity to the interjection. "feh",[1] which appears in the 1936 Yiddish song Yidl Mitn Fidl. The rhyming of the two words is only one such link to the language. In Alexander Harkavy's "Yiddish-English-Hebrew Dictionary" the word is treated as a bleating or baa sound. Hooray for Yiddish, by Leo Rosten uses the word "mnyeh," which is speculated to be an early variant of "meh."[1]

PopularizationEdit

As early as 1992, "meh" appeared in a Usenet posting in a discussion referring to the television series Melrose Place.[6] The word's first mainstream print usage occurred in Canadian newspaper the Edmonton Sun in 2003: "Ryan Opray got voted offSurvivor. Meh."[7]

Meh's popularity surged after its use on The Simpsons.[8][1] It was first used in the 1994 episode "Sideshow Bob Roberts",[1]when a librarian reacts to Lisa's surprise that voting records are not classified. It also appeared later in "Lisa's Wedding" afterMarge weaves "Hi Bart" on a loom to try to pique her son's 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".[1] American lexicographer Benjamin Zimmer wrote in 2006, "Whatever Yiddish origins the interjection might have had, they have been lost in post-Simpsons usage."[9] Zimmer contacted Simpson's writer John Swartzwelder, who was responsible for "Hungry Hungry Homer," who said "I had originally heard the word from an advertising writer named Howie Krakow back in 1970 or 1971 who insisted it was the funniest word in the world."[1] Zimmer also contacted the writers of the other two episodes but they could not remember where they heard the word from.[1]