A new use of "duh?"

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Fri, Mar 03, 2006 at 04:34:39PM -0500, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>
> I grew up hearing "no duh" (NJ, '70s-'80s), but it was never used this
> way. It was always the equivalent of "no shit (Sherlock)"-- I vaguely
> remember "no derrr" being used for similar effect. So using it as the
> equivalent of "no wonder..." sounds pretty odd to me too. But I see
> how this sense could be extrapolated from the traditional playground
> usage.

My experience of this phrase exactly parallels Ben's (including the
occasional _no derr_ variant, which was used by high-school classmates
who were from Queens). I've never heard anything like the "no, you
fool" sense that JEL notes.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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