Why do we say 'Bah, humbug!'? | | We know Scrooge's famous "Bah, humbug!" from "A Christmas Carol," but the phrase meant something more nuanced than simple grumpiness in Dickens' time. | |  | Bennett Kleinman |
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| |  | | M uch like we associate "D'oh!" with Homer Simpson or "Good grief!" with Charlie Brown, the exclamation "Bah, humbug!" is forever intertwined with Ebenezer Scrooge, the protagonist of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. But the word "humbug" existed prior to the work of fiction in which it was popularized, and furthermore, Scrooge's grumpy message is often misinterpreted.
The word "bah" has been used since the early 19th century as "an expression of contempt or disagreement." But "humbug" was coined around 50 years earlier. (If you're doing the math, "humbug" was 1750s slang, "bah" was from the 1810s, and Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843.) "Humbug" originally meant "a hoax; a jesting or befooling trick," and was commonly used around that time to describe a sham or other misleading event. |
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Emoji Decoded | |  | | Microbe | | | Meaning: Shows a green blob-like microorganism to represent germs, bacteria, and viruses.
Evolution: The Microbe emoji 🦠 represents germs and illness, especially during cold and flu season. It became closely associated with the coronavirus in 2020, so it also stands in for mentions of COVID-19 and the pandemic. If you're feeling under the weather, you might add the Face with Thermometer 🤒, Face with Medical Mask 😷, or Sneezing Face 🤧.
Usage: [Text to co-workers:] Woke up with a sore throat and fever, so I'll be keeping my germs at home today 🦠🤒😷 |
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| | Microbe | | | Meaning: Shows a green blob-like microorganism to represent germs, bacteria, and viruses.
Evolution: The Microbe emoji 🦠 represents germs and illness, especially during cold and flu season. It became closely associated with the coronavirus in 2020, so it also stands in for mentions of COVID-19 and the pandemic. If you're feeling under the weather, you might add the Face with Thermometer 🤒, Face with Medical Mask 😷, or Sneezing Face 🤧.
Usage: [Text to co-workers:] Woke up with a sore throat and fever, so I'll be keeping my germs at home today 🦠🤒😷 |
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Have you read? | |  | | The Goldfinch | | | | I understand why Donna Tartt takes more than a decade to write each of her books. This was described to me as "kind of an art heist book," but it was infinitely more than that. We meet Theo, an anxiety-ridden teen, as he has a profoundly traumatic experience, and we watch how it continues to shape the rest of his life. Carel Fabritius' "The Goldfinch" painting is a throughline, and as I learned in a book club discussion, it can represent something different to every reader. | | | | Jennifer A. Freeman, Word Smarts Senior Editor | | | | We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. |
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| | The Goldfinch | | | | I understand why Donna Tartt takes more than a decade to write each of her books. This was described to me as "kind of an art heist book," but it was infinitely more than that. We meet Theo, an anxiety-ridden teen, as he has a profoundly traumatic experience, and we watch how it continues to shape the rest of his life. Carel Fabritius' "The Goldfinch" painting is a throughline, and as I learned in a book club discussion, it can represent something different to every reader. | | | | Jennifer A. Freeman, Word Smarts Senior Editor | | | | We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. |
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You might also like | |  | | | | Is It 'Down the Pike' or 'Down the Pipe'? | | With our apologies to Nintendo's famous Italian plumber Mario, this idiom originally had nothing to do with pipes — so let's explore why people tend to get it mixed up. |
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