ugh

English

Pronunciation

• (lexically) IPA^(key): /ʌɣ/, /ʌ(ɡ)/, /ʌx/, /əː/
• (natural exclamation) Any low-back vowel followed by a fricative articulated between the velum and the throat.
  • Note: may be nasalized.

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Interjection

ugh

1. Used to express repugnance, disgust, or annoyance.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:yuck

   Ugh! The bread in the pantry has gone moldy.

   • 1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XXI:

     [...] It may have been a water-rat I speared, / But, ugh! it sounded like a baby's shriek.

   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbj&oslash￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 57:

     "Ugh, what a smell of Christian blood there is here," screamed the giant.

   • 2023, “Paint The Town Red”, in Scarlet, performed by Doja Cat:

     Ugh, you can't take that bitch nowhere

2. Used to express inarticulate vocalisations, such as used by a caveman.
   • 1921, H.G. Wells, “The Grisly Folk”, in Selected Short Stories, published 1958, page 291:

     The brothers surveyed the wide prospect earnestly. "Ugh!" said one abruptly and pointed. "Ugh!" cried his brother. The eyes of the whole tribe swung round to the pointing finger. The group became one rigid stare.

Translations

to express disgust

• Arabic: يَع (yaʕ)
• Catalan: uf (ca), ecs (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 惡心 / 恶心 (zh) (ěxin), (strong, offensive) 呸 (zh) (pēi), 啐 (zh) (cuì), 哎呀 (zh) (āiyā), 哎 (zh) (āi), 唉 (zh) (ài)

• Cornish: ogh
• Czech: fuj (cs)
• Dutch: bah (nl)
• Esperanto: aĉ (eo)
• Finnish: hyh (fi)
• French: beurk (fr)
• German: igitt (de), pfui (de)
• Greek: αχ (el) (ach)

  Ancient Greek: ψό (psó)

• Hebrew: איכס (he) (ikhs), איכסה (he) (íkhsa), פוי (he) (fuy), פויה (he) (fuya)
• Hindi: अरे (hi) (are), उफ़ (uf), छी (hi) (chī)
• Ido: uf (io)
• Italian: che schifo
• Japanese: うっ (u'), わっ (wa'), げ (ja) (ge), ゲ (ja) (ge), げっ (ge'), ゲッ (ge'))
• Malay: ee
• Mari:

  Eastern Mari: фу-у (fu-u)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: æsj (no), fy (no), uff (no)

• Persian: ایش (fa) (išš)
• Polish: fu (pl)
• Portuguese: agh, aff
• Romanian: câh
• Russian: фу (ru) (fu), тьфу (ru) (tʹfu), фе (ru) (fe), фи (ru) (fi) (aristocratic), бе (ru) (be), уф (ru) (uf) (for annoyance)
• Spanish: puf (es), guácala (es) (Mexico), fuchi (es) (Mexico), fúchila (Mexico), aj (es)
• Swedish: usch (sv)
• Tagalog: yak
• Tibetan: ཨ་ཡོ (a yo), ཨ་ཁ (a kha)
• Turkish: ıı
• Welsh: ych (cy)

Anagrams

• Ghu, ghu, hug

Manx

Interjection

ugh!

1. oh!

Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From Old Irish og, from Proto-Celtic *āuyom, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /u(h)/, (rarely) /uɣ/
• (Tiree) IPA^(key): /uːɣ/ (as if spelled ùgh)

Noun

ugh m (genitive singular uigh or uighe, plural uighean)

1. egg

Derived terms

• bonnach-uighe (“omelette”)
• plaosg-uighe (“eggshell”)
• ugh na Càisge (“Easter egg”)
• ughlann (“ovary”)
• uighean pronn (“scrambled eggs”)

Mutation

Mutation of ugh

radical	eclipsis	with h-prothesis	with t-prothesis
ugh	n-ugh	h-ugh	t-ugh

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Scottish Gaelic.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

• Edward Dwelly (1911), “ugh”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN