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bah

Pronunciation: /ba/

“bah” is a French word. Its 2 meanings in English:

interjection

  1. No.
  2. An exclamation to fill space, often used as an intensifier; well, err, um

In French

  1. Interjection dénotant le doute ou la négation.
  2. Interjection marquant la renonciation ou le rejet d'une idée par insouciance ou lâcher-prise.
  3. Mot permettant au locuteur d’avoir le temps de réfléchir, de se décider.
  4. Évidemment, bien sûr (que).

Etymology

Not well-attested in texts, but of imitative origin nevertheless, similar to bayer (“to gape”). Sense 2 is a denasalized version of "ben".

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Definitions in French are from the French Wiktionary, under the same licence.