bah humbug

== English == === Etymology === From bah (interjection expressing contempt, disgust, or bad temper) + humbug (“balderdash!, nonsense!, rubbish!”). The words were originally spoken by the miser Ebenezer Scrooge in the novella A Christmas Carol (1843) by English author Charles Dickens (1812–1870). === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /bɑː ˈhʌmbʌɡ/ (General American) IPA(key): /ˌbɑ ˈhʌmˌbʌɡ/ Hyphenation: bah hum‧bug === Interjection === bah humbug (humorous) Expressing cynicism, disillusionment or distrustfulness; and specifically a dislike of Christmas and its celebrations and festivities. 1976, Susan George, “Food Aid? … Or Weapon?”, in How the Other Half Dies: The Real Reasons for World Hunger, Harmondsworth, London; New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, →ISBN; reprinted Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1989, →ISBN, page 164: Only a modern Scrooge could say, "Bah, Humbug," where helping people to get enough to eat is concerned. Well, we are not going to argue that food aid has never filled an empty stomach or saved a dying child—but we will contend, in the case of the United States at least, that it has done so only inadvertently. === Verb === bah humbug (third-person singular simple present bah humbugs, present participle bah humbugging, simple past and past participle bah humbugged) To utter the words "bah humbug"; to dismiss with the words, or sentiment, of the interjection. === References ===