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The Word

The ‘meh’ generation

How an expression of apathy invaded America

By Ben Zimmer

 |   

  February 26, 2012

f there’s one word that haunts the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, it’s a tiny yet expressive one: meh. For a definition of meh, let’s turn to the Collins English Dictionary--which welcomed the word to its pages in 2008. As an exclamation, it’s “an expression of indifference or boredom,” and as an adjective, it means “mediocre or boring.” But if the word is about boredom, the reception of meh by English speakers has been anything but apathetic. Four years after joining the dictionary, its frequency is rising, threatening to take over the presidential race and maybe our whole year.

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