A disgruntled Canadian voter expressing boredom in an Internet forum about the recent federal election will have that feeling immortalized in the Collins English Dictionary.

The U.K.-based publisher of the popular reference book announced this week that the word "meh" - meaning "mediocre" or "boring," as in "the Canadian election was so meh," Collins editors explained - has been chosen over hundreds of other submissions to become the general public's entry in the dictionary's 30th anniversary edition, to be printed next year.

But the lexicographer who used the election reference to convey the meaning of English's new "expression of indifference" insists he intended "no slight to Canada."

The lexicographer who used the election reference to convey the meaning insists he intended "no slight to Canada."

Chris Wattie/Reuters

Email to a friendPrinter friendly

Font:

• *
• *
• *
• *

The naming of "meh" as winner of the nationwide contest has generated international media attention, partly because the term first gained widespread usage after it was featured in an episode of The Simpsons in which Lisa and Bart, glued to the TV, listlessly utter "meh" to rebuff Homer's offer of a day trip.

The word was entered in the contest by Nottingham resident Erin Whyte, who defined meh as "an expression of utter boredom or an indication of how little you care for an idea."

Meh was selected by Collins editors for publication over terms such as jargonaut, frenemy and huggles.

"We ran this competition to encourage the general public to tell us about the words that they use every day when talking with friends, but that aren't in the dictionary," said Elaine Higgleton, the publisher's editorial director. "Language is used by everyone, and we want to make sure that Collins dictionaries include everyone's words."

But the official definition of the word - released by Collins Dictionaries on Monday - has raised some eyebrows in Canada because lexicographers offered an anonymous Internet reference to this country's "meh" October election to clarify the meaning of the term as an adjective akin to "mediocre" or "boring."

"Our policy at Collins is to use real examples wherever possible," Collins wordsmith Cormac McKeown told Canwest News Service. "This was a real example from the Internet, and the first one that I found that both fitted the first adjectival sense of the word and gave enough contextual information for readers to see how the word would typically be used."

McKeown, head of content at Collins Dictionaries, added: "No slight to Canada, or its election, intended."

Perhaps not. But the shining of a global spotlight on the "meh"-worthiness of the fall election campaign - which began and ended with a Conservative minority government - isn't likely to address the meh attitude ("apathetic, bored, or unimpressed") of many Canadians toward politics.

Oddly, though, the word is a near-homonym for the surname of Green party Leader Elizabeth May, whose performance during the campaign was widely seen as one of the most interesting, "un-meh" things about the Oct. 14 election.

McKeown said meh is now "deeply entrenched on the Net" and that the word's inclusion in Collins' next English dictionary illustrates the Internet's growing impact on the evolution of the language.

"Internet forums and e-mail are playing a big part in formalizing the spellings of vocal interjections like these," he said. "A couple of other examples would be hmm and heh, which are both now ubiquitous online and in e-mails. It shows people are increasingly writing in a register somewhere in between spoken and written English."

© Canwest News Service 2008