bah

See also: Bah, BAH, bāh, and Bah.

English

Etymology 1

Early 19th century, probably borrowed from French bah.

Alternative forms

• baugh (archaic)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bæ/, /bɑː/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æ, -ɑː
• Homophones: baa, bar (in some pronunciations)

Interjection

bah

1. (sometimes humorous) Expressing contempt, disgust, or bad temper.
   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, H.L. Brækstad, transl., Folk and Fairy Tales, page 301:

     "To the doctor's? Bah!" said the sorceress, and spat upon the floor.

   • 1992, April Kihlstrom, Dangerous Masquerade:

     Templeton looked over the assembled servants speculatively, then shrugged. "Bah!" he said. "They're of no use to me. Come, Andrew, a word with you upstairs."

Synonyms

• (expressing contempt): pht, feh, meh, pooh, pshaw, poh, pish; see also Thesaurus:bah
• (expressing disgust): bleh, ick, ych a fi; see also Thesaurus:yuck

Derived terms

• bah humbug
• pooh-bah, poobah

Translations

expressing contempt

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: (strong, offensive) 呸 (zh) (pēi)

• Finnish: pah, pöh (fi), pyh (fi)
• Galician: boh (gl)
• Greek: μπα (el) (ba)

• Ido: ba (io)
• Maori: atā, aeha
• Portuguese: bah (pt), chispa (pt), ora bolas, goff
• Russian: тьфу (ru) (tʹfu), фу (ru) (fu)
• Spanish: bah (es)

Etymology 2

Alternative forms

• baa

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bɑː/
• Rhymes: -ɑː
• Homophones: baa, bar (in some pronunciations)

Noun

bah (plural bahs)

1. Alternative spelling of baa (the cry of a sheep or goat).
   • 1887, H. Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure‎^[1]:

     `There, cut his throat quick. Where is the saucer?' `The Goat! the Goat! the Goat! Give me the blood of my black goat! I must have it, don't you see I must have it? Oh! oh! oh! give me the blood of the goat.' At this moment a terrified bah! announced that the poor goat had been sacrificed, and the next minute a woman ran up with a saucer full of blood.

Etymology 3

From Mandarin 吧 (ba).

Particle

bah

1. (Singlish) This term needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

See also

• sis boom bah

Anagrams

• ABH, AHB, BHA, HAB, HBA, Hab, Hab., hab

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Dutch

Etymology

Exclamatory

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɑ/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bah

Interjection

bah

1. An exclamation of disapproval, contempt or disgust: bah, yuck

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French

Etymology

Not well-attested in texts, but of imitative origin nevertheless, similar to bayer (“to gape”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ba/

• Audio

  (file)

Interjection

bah

1. No.

   Bah, bah, bah !

   No, no, no!

2. An exclamation to fill space, often used as an intensifier; well, err, um

   Synonym: ben

   Tu veux jouer aussi ? ― Bah, ouais.

   Do you want to play too? ― Well, yeah.

Further reading

• “bah”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• hab

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German

Alternative forms

• bäh

Etymology

Exclamatory

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ba(h)/, /baː/, /ba.aː/

• Audio

  (file)

Interjection

bah

1. an exclamation of disgust: yuck, etc.

   Synonyms: igitt, iiih, pfui, üäh

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Indonesian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈbah]
• Hyphenation: bah

Etymology 1

From Malay bah, from Proto-Malayic *baah, from Proto-Malayo-Chamic *baah, from Proto-Malayo-Sumbawan *baah, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *bahaq, from Proto-Austronesian *baSaq.

Noun

bah (first-person possessive bahku, second-person possessive bahmu, third-person possessive bahnya)

1. flood.

   Synonym: banjir

Derived terms

• bah betina
• bah jantan

 

Etymology 2

From Dutch bah.

Interjection

bah

1. an exclamation of scorn, disgust, contempt

Etymology 3

From Malay bah.

Interjection

bah

1. an exclamation of intimacy

Further reading

• “bah” in Online Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language [Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia Daring], Jakarta: Language Development and Fostering Agency — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.

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Italian

Etymology

Exclamatory

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈba/, which may be followed by [h] or [ʔ] or trigger syntactic gemination.
• Rhymes: -a
• Hyphenation: bah

Interjection

bah

1. Indicates astonishment, resignation and despise; usually used after noticing or hearing something you don't like or you don't know what to think about, to avoid commenting or giving an answer to a question.

See also

• mah

References

• bah in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

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Malay

Pronunciation

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

Etymology 1

From Proto-Malayic *baah, from Proto-Malayo-Chamic *baah, from Proto-Malayo-Sumbawan *baah, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *bahaq, from Proto-Austronesian *baSaq.

Alternative forms

• به‎

Noun

bah (Jawi spelling به, plural bah-bah)

1. flood (overflow of water)

Synonyms

• banjir / بنجير‎

Descendants

• Indonesian: bah

Etymology 2

Shortened form of abah, from Proto-Malayic *aba-h, from Proto-Malayo-Chamic *aba-h, from Proto-Malayo-Sumbawan *aba-h, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *aba, from Proto-Austronesian *aba.

Alternative forms

• abah
• aba
• ابه‎
• اب‎
• به‎

Noun

bah (Jawi spelling به)

1. Alternative form of abah

Etymology 3

Shortened form of babah, from baba, variant of bapa.

Alternative forms

• bapa
• baba
• babah
• bapanda
• bapai
• bapak
• bapang
• papa
• باڤ‎
• بابا‎
• بابه‎
• به‎
• باڤندا‎
• باڤاي‎
• باڤق‎
• باڤڠ‎
• ڤاڤ‎

Noun

bah (Jawi spelling به)

1. Alternative form of bapa

Etymology 4

Abbreviation of bahasa, from Sanskrit भाषा (bhāṣā, “language”).

Alternative forms

• bahasa
• بهاس‎
• به‎

Noun

bah (Jawi spelling به)

1. Abbreviation of bahasa.

Etymology 5

Shortened form of bawah, from Proto-Malayic *babah, from Proto-Malayo-Chamic *babah, from Proto-Malayo-Sumbawan *babah, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *babaq, from Proto-Austronesian *babaq.

Alternative forms

• bawah
• باوه‎
• به‎

Preposition

bah (Jawi spelling به)

1. Alternative form of bawah

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Min Nan

For pronunciation and definitions of bah – see 肉 (“meat; flesh”). (This character, bah, is the Pe̍h-ōe-jī form of 肉.)

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Portuguese

Interjection

bah!

1. (Rio Grande do Sul) Alternative form of bá

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Simalungun Batak

Noun

bah

1. water
2. river

References

• Zufri Hidayat et al. (2015). Kamus Bahasa Simalungun–Indonesia (2nd ed.). Medan: Balai Bahasa Provinsi Sumatera Utara, p. 18.

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Spanish

Etymology

Possibly from Latin vāh.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈba/, [ˈba]

Interjection

bah

1. indicates disdain or unbelief

See also

• qué va

Further reading

• “bah”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

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Zou

Verb

bah

1. bet

References

• http://www.languageinindia.com/feb2013/zouphonologyfinal.pdf