..heh...[humph?]

[Thomas Paikeday]

I do think "heh" is a greeting and used not just in chat rooms. A young
lady I know (a socalled "native speaker") uses it as the first word of
the greeting on her answerer. Didn't Fonzie of "Happy Days" use to use a
greeting of this kind?

If I may stray a little off-topic, another interjection that I don't
find defined adequately in dictionaries is "humph" (and variations such
as "hmmm"). When it is uttered as a question, "hmm" sounds like a
challenge to me, as in "I think you are wrong." Response: "Hmm?" which
is not an expression of rumination, contemplation, etc. I have tried to
do justice to this second meaning in my User's(R) Webster.

TOM PAIKEDAY, lexicographer.

GSCole wrote:
>
> Would appreciate some information about the use of the word 'heh' in
> chat rooms.  I've looked in various online sources, including several
> guides to chat room terminology and a couple online dictionaries, but
> cannot find a definition or translation of 'heh'.  It seems to be a
> greeting, per the commentary presented below. . . .