A new use of "duh?"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 3/3/06, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I come down on the side of "bizarre and unusual." I've never seen it or
> heard it before. Anyway, what caught my attention was the use of "duh" as
> though it was a noun and a synonym of "wonder":
>
> "Well, no wonder / no duh your product isn't selling ..."
>
>  The meaning is clear, but this construction is new to me. I guess that I
> need to get out more. ;-)

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.


--Ben Zimmer

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