different between blah vs foo

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /fu?/
• Rhymes: -u?
• Homophone: -fu

Etymology 1

From Mandarin ? (f?).

Noun

foo (plural foos)

1. (historical, obsolete) Alternative form of fu: an administrative subdivision of imperial China; the capital of such divisions.

Etymology 2

From Chinese ? (fú, “fortunate; prosperity, good luck”), via its use as ?? (Fúx?ng, “Jupiter”) in Chinese statues of the Three Lucky Stars, picked up from c. 1935 as a nonsense word in Bill Holman's Smokey Stover comic strip, whence it was picked up by Pogo, Looney Tunes, and others. Used by Jack Speer as the fannish ghod of mimeography. Popularized in computing contexts by the Tech Model Railroad Club's 1959 Dictionary of the TMRC Language, which incorporated it into a parody of the Hindu chant om mani padme hum, possibly under the influence of WWII military slang FUBAR, which had been repopularized by Joseph Heller's Catch-22.

Noun

foo (uncountable)

1. (programming) A metasyntactic variable used to represent an unspecified entity. If part of a series of such entities, it is often the first in the series, and followed immediately by bar.

2. (fandom slang) Alternative letter-case form of Foo (“placeholder god”)

Derived terms

• foobar

Related terms

• FUBAR

Etymology 3

A minced form of fuck.

Interjection

foo

1. Expression of disappointment or disgust.

Synonyms

• (expression of disgust): darn, drat

Etymology 4

Alternative forms

• foo'

Noun

foo (plural foos)

1. (slang) Pronunciation spelling of fool.

References

• rfc:3092, Etymology of "Foo", Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

Anagrams

• oof

Middle English

Etymology 1

From the oblique stem of Old English ?ef?h.

Noun

foo (plural foos)

1. Alternative form of fo

Etymology 2

From Old English f?, variant of f?h.

Adjective

foo

1. Alternative form of fo

Adverb

foo

1. Alternative form of fo

Murui Huitoto

Etymology

From Proto-Huitoto-Ocaina *ho.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [????]

Adverb

foo

1. in, inside

References

• Katarzyna Izabela Wojtylak (2017) A grammar of Murui (Bue): a Witotoan language of Northwest Amazonia.?^[1], Townsville: James Cook University press (PhD thesis)

Tetum

Verb

foo

1. to stink