um en · INTJ · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- /ʌm/
- (US) audio
Etymology
Onomatopoeic.
Meanings
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Expression of hesitation, uncertainty or space filler in conversation.
As the years go by, speech reverts to childhood levels of disfluency, with more pauses, more errors, more repeated words, but even the peak years are not great: up to 8 percent of the average person’s word output consists of meaningless fillers and placeholders like um, uh and er.
2007 August 24, William Grimes, “Uh, Lead My Rips: No More Bloopers”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 04 Jan 2013:Let’s see... um... how about this?
Um, I don’t know.
Um And I don't know um what to say to the court other than, I don't know how we could get through 1/5 of that.
2024 June 24, “Baldwin Judge on FIRE!”, in Law of Self Defense, page 2:It's a great test of the claims of open-source gurus, who say that a self-motivated community can outcode any team working for a single employer—like, um, Microsoft.
2002, “Newsweek”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 140, page lxxx:
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(US) Dated spelling of mmm.
"About the same, wherever you go," he agreed. "Um," I said.
1963, Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle, Dell Publishing Co., Inc., page 65:
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An expression to forcefully call attention to something wrong.
Um, excuse me!
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(childish) An expression of shocked disapproval used by a child who witnesses forbidden behavior.
Mair used to look after Laura. If anyone threatened to tease her, Mair would stand up straight, point her finger at the enemy and shout, 'Um! I'm telling on you!'
2021, Sarah Strangeways, The Gingerbread House, page 13:While I was in her room, Sam walked by and said, “Um, I'm telling!” “You're telling what?” I asked. “You're reading Tori's journal,” she said.
2011, Kimberly Willis Holt, Piper Reed: Clubhouse Queen, page 83: