rah

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹɑː/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː

Etymology 1

Clipping of hurrah

Alternative forms

• ra

Interjection

rah

1. An exclamation of encouragement.
   • 2011, Kern Alexander, M. David Alexander, American Public School Law (page 668)

     Not so very long ago, a row of docile cheerleaders would say, “rah, rah, rah, sis-boombah”—maybe a leg would kick up into the air, perhaps a jump under the cheerleader's own power.

Noun

rah (plural rahs)

1. (Britain, informal) A person (especially a student) with a posh accent who looks down on those who are "common".
   • 2012, Helen Pidd, Letter from India: it's no easy matter being a woman looking for a decent drink in Delhi, The Guardian [1]

     I didn't need to make a mental note not to follow their advice: like every other pretentious foreigner from the gap year rahs to the retired yoga addicts, I had no intention of stepping into a shopping centre. I was going to discover the real India.

Adjective

rah (comparative more rah, superlative most rah)

1. (Britain, informal) Posh.
   • 2021, Boris Johnson has utterly failed to back up his anti-woke rhetoric with action (in The Sunday Telegraph, 9 December)

     The June 2020 protest at which the Bristol slave-trader and philanthropist’s statue was brought down was a BLM protest. But none of the defendants were black. Rather, as you can tell from their names (including Milo Ponsford and Sage Willoughby) they were almost comically typical of a certain rah, right-on Bristol type.

Etymology 2

Clipping of rhatid

Interjection

rah

1. (MLE) An expression of surprise.
   • 2019 June 6, Skepta, quoted in “Skepta opens up about becoming a father and enduring two heartbreaking miscarriages” by Narjas Zatat, Metro:

     He’s like, “Shut up, man. Whatever man. Skip, man, was a shot.” And I’m like, “Rah, this is a bit of a weird reaction?”

2. (MLE) An expression of admiration.
   • 2016, Wiley, quoted in This Is Grime by Hattie Collins and Olivia Rose, Hachette UK, page 145:

     Target bought^[sic] the tape round, I listened to it and I was like, ‘Rah, this is sick, this kid is so sick’.

3. (MLE) An expression of frustration or anger.
   • 2016, Big Narstie (lyrics), “Fire In The Booth (Part 3)”, performed by Big Narstie on BBC Radio 1Xtra:

     I was daydreaming, smoking weed out the curtain / Looking at my baby like rah, I'm just a burden

Synonyms

• wow

Anagrams

• Ahr, HAR, RHA, har

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Mizo

Etymology

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *raʔ (“fruit”), maybe from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *b-ras (“rice”). Cognate found in Tibetan འབྲས ('bras).

Noun

rah

1. fruit, berry

   rah tlan ― bird-traps consisting of a kind of fruit

2. acorn, nut

Verb

rah

1. to bear fruit

   rah duh ― for a tree to be fruitful

   rah ṭha ― to bear good fruit

   rah chhia ― to bear bad fruit

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Old Javanese

Noun

rah

1. Alternative spelling of rāh

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Somali

Etymology

Cognate with Jiiddu raki.

Noun

rah f

1. frog

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Sumerian

Romanization

rah

1. Romanization of 𒈛 (raḫ)