I got one of those Dyson Ball Cleaners for Christmas. Unfortunately, I misunderstood what it was, which is why I'm now in casualty...
lol i cant even post a link to wiki with *** in it ?! just type " the word" into google it will tell you what its about
The word gained popularity as a result of its use on The Simpsons.[2] It was used in a 1994 episode, "Sideshow Bob Roberts," when a librarian reacts to Lisa's surprise that voting records are not classified, and also in "Lisa's Wedding" after Marge weaves "Hi Bart" on a loom to try to pique his interest in weaving to which he responds "m*h." In the 2001 episode "Hungry, Hungry Homer", Lisa spells out the word for emphasis M.E.H, after Homer tries to interest her and Bart into going to a theme park. As early as 1992, however, the word appeared in a posting to a Usenet Internet forum in a discussion referring to the TV series Melrose Place.[3] The word's first mainstream print usage occurred in Canadian newspaper the Edmonton Sun in 2003: "Ryan Opray got voted off Survivor. M*h."[4] There has been speculation that its origin is Yiddish because of its similarity to the interjection "feh". American lexicographer Benjamin Zimmer expressed some skepticism about this idea, and wrote in 2006, "Whatever Yiddish origins the interjection might have had, they have been lost in post-Simpsons usage." Lexicographer Grant Barrett wrote about "***" and "D'oh", "I suspect they're both just transcribed versions of oral speech, which has any number of single-syllable sounds that mean a variety of things."[3] In December 2009, *** was included in a BBC News Online list of 20 words which 'defined the decade'.
In real speech it`d be accompanied by a shrug of the shoulders. Think of that stereo-typed French shrug of indifference. This is the written version of that. If anything it`s almost onomatopoeic.
Cheers McStu, that explanation is good, but I hardly feel my existence has been enriched by my greater comprehension on the matter. Think I will just have a beer instead to satisfy the brain.
It (***) should really be spelt... "mneuh".. now say it really fast abnd shorten the overall sound to less than a 10th of a second and you have it... kinda like a nnnn and a "huh" rolled into one
