different between blah vs dah

English

Etymology

• Sense “Idle, meaningless talk” (1940), probably imitative or echoic in origin. Perhaps, but cf Greek "barbarbar” ‘unintelligible sounds’ (Grillo 1989:174).
• Adjective sense “bland, dull” (1919), perhaps influenced by French blasé (“bored, indifferent”).
• The blahs (“boredom, mild depression”) first attested 1969; extension of adjective sense and influenced by term the blues.
• Also may be connected with bleat

GRILLO, R.D. 1989. Dominant languages: Language and hierarchy in Britain and France. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bl??/
• IPA^(key): /bla/
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

blah (countable and uncountable, plural blahs)

1. (uncountable, informal) Nonsense; drivel; idle, meaningless talk.
2. (informal) (in plural, the blahs) A general or ambiguous feeling of discomfort, dissatisfaction, uneasiness, boredom, mild depression, etc.

Synonyms

• (nonsense, drivel): bosh, bombast, bunkum, claptrap, eyewash, fustian, rant, hooey, humbug, rubbish, twaddle
• (feeling of boredom, mild depression): malaise

Translations

Adjective

blah (comparative more blah, superlative most blah)

1. (informal) Dull; uninteresting; insipid.

   Well, the new restaurant seems nice, but their menu is a little blah.

2. (informal) Low in spirit or health; down.

   I decided to go exercise rather than sit around all day feeling blah.

Interjection

blah

1. An expression of mild frustration.

   Synonyms: bah, blast, drat, (archaic) fie

   Blah! Why can't I get this computer to work!

2. (When spoken repeatedly, often three times in succession: blah blah blah!) Imitative of idle, meaningless talk; used sometimes in a slightly derogatory manner to mock or downplay another's words, or to show disinterest in a diatribe, rant, instructions, unsolicited advice, parenting, etc. Also used when recalling and retelling another's words, as a substitute for the portions of the speech deemed irrelevant.

   Synonyms: blah blah, blah blah blah, yada yada yada

   Yeah, yeah, blah blah blah, Mom, you said this all yesterday.

   And then he was like, "Oh, my brother's an Internet millionaire, blah blah blah." Like I care!

3. Representing the sound of vomiting.

   Synonyms: bleah, blech, bleh

Translations

Verb

blah (third-person singular simple present blahs, present participle blahing, simple past and past participle blahed)

1. (intransitive) To utter idle, meaningless talk.
   • 2015, Tony Blair, Jeremy Corbyn’s politics are fantasy – just like Alice in Wonderland (in The Guardian, 29 August 2015) [1]

     Someone else said to me: “If you’re writing something again, don’t blah on about winning elections; it really offends them.”

See also

• barbarian
• rhubarb

Anagrams

• Bahl

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??/
• Rhymes: -??

Etymology 1

Imitative

Noun

dah (plural dahs)

1. The spoken representation of a dash in radio and telegraph Morse code.

Translations

See also

• dit

Etymology 2

From Burmese ??? (dha:)

Alternative forms

• dha

Noun

dah (plural dahs)

1. (Myanmar) A long knife or sword with a round cross-section grip, a long, gently curving blade with a single edge, and no guard.
   • 1922, Rudyard Kipling, "What Happened", lines 33-36, [1]

     Jowar Singh the Sikh procured sabre, quoit, and mace, / Abdul Huq, Wahabi, jerked his dagger from its place, / While amid the jungle-grass danced and grinned and jabbered / Little Boh Hla-oo and cleared his dah-blade from the scabbard.

   • 1934, George Orwell, Burmese Days, Chapter 22, [2]

     It was like a sea of people, two thousand at the least, black and white in the moon, with here and there a curved dah glittering.

Anagrams

• ADH, AHD, DHA, HDA, had

Indonesian

Etymology 1

Clipping of sudah

Adjective

dah

1. good, okay

Etymology 2

From Dutch dag (“bye”)

Interjection

dah

1. bye

Malay

Etymology

Shortened sudah.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dah/
• Rhymes: -dah, -ah

Adjective

dah

1. done

Navajo

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t??h/

Adverb

dah

1. up, off, at an elevation, set off

Derived terms

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??x/

Noun

d?h m (nominative plural d?gas)

1. Alternative form of d?g

Declension

Portuguese

Verb

dah

1. (Internet slang) Alternative spelling of dá

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *d?x?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dâx/

Noun

d?h m (Cyrillic spelling ????)

1. breath
2. breathing, respiration
3. stench, odor

Declension

Derived terms

• odàhnuti (“to pause”)

References

• “dah” in Hrvatski jezi?ni portal

Southern Sami

Etymology

From the plural of Proto-Samic *t?të (“this”). Cognates include Pite Sami dáh (“these”).

Pronoun

dah

1. they

Inflection

This pronoun needs an inflection-table template.

Zhuang

Pronunciation

• (Standard Zhuang) IPA^(key): /ta?/
• Tone numbers: da⁶
• Hyphenation: dah

Etymology 1

From Proto-Tai *da?? (“river”). Cognate with Thai ??? (tâa, “pier”), Lao ??? (th?, “pier”), Lü ??? (taa¹, “pier”), Shan ??? (t?a, “pier; shallow place in water”).

Noun

dah (Sawndip forms ? or ? or ???? or ? or ? or ???? or ?, old orthography da?)

1. river

Derived terms

• dahmbwn

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Classifier

dah (Sawndip forms ???? or ???? or ? or ?, old orthography da?)

1. Classifier for young females.

Zou

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /da??/

Noun

dah

1. bell

References

• Lukram Himmat Singh (2013) A Descriptive Grammar of Zou, Canchipur: Manipur University, page 44