Uh-huh, huh-uh

[Baker, John]

        I'm surprised to see that Merriam-Webster has such late dates for these words:  1889 for uh-huh, circa 1924 for uh-uh, and, implausibly, 1971 for uh-oh.

        Why so late?  These seem like the kind of terms that one would expect to have been in the language for centuries.  Of course, their apparent lateness may be an artifact of a lack of standardized spellings and a tendency not to regard them as words, but I think the latter goes only so far, since there has always been a need to reflect such terms in colloquial dialogue.

        I can antedate uh-uh and uh-oh.  For uh-uh, here's an August 1901 cite from The Atlantic Monthly, available on Making of America (Cornell), referring to a patient who is holding on to a woman's hand:  "'Why, Henderson, I'm dashed if I can untangle him.' Carey stooped again. 'Just alive enough to swing to her.  Uh-uh!'"

        A slightly earlier (1901, but referring to earlier events) cite is from Studybaker v. Cofield, 159 Mo. 596, 61 S.W. 246, 249 (Feb. 12, 1901), but the meaning is questionable at best:  "Witness was of the opinion that on the day the deed was executed and the day before Boyer could not understand what he was doing.  Witness would ask him if he wanted his medicine, and he would answer, 'Uh, uh.'  'Q.  You think he was unable to make himself understood at all?  A. That is, according to my--  Q. And was unable to understand what people said to him?  A.  That is the way I took it.'"

        For uh-oh, I can take it back to 1942, describing events of 1940:  "The witness then testified in substance that she had been gazing in that direction (towards the west field) since the car began its ascent of the hill; that she looked back when Mr. Rubart said 'Uh Oh!' and she then saw the truck."  Roushar v. Dixon, 231 Iowa 993, 995, 2 N.W.2d 660, 661 (Mar. 10, 1942).

John Baker


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Subject: Uh-huh, huh-uh


A glance at N'archive shows "uh-huh" = "yes" from 1887, "huh-uh" = "no"
from 1901. If these are of interest, I can quote them ... but I suppose
there are earlier ones.

-- Doug Wilson