faugh

English

Alternative forms

• faw
• fough (obsolete)

Etymology

Onomatopoeic. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Perhaps also related to some Old Norse root? Like fie (fy) seems to be?”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɔː/
• Rhymes: -ɔː
• Homophones: faw, fough, for, four, fore

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Interjection

faugh

1. (dated) An exclamation of contempt, or of disgust, especially for a smell.

   Synonyms: yuck, bah; see also Thesaurus:yuck, Thesaurus:bah

   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 89:

     Bian[ca]. I am no ſtrumpet, but of life as honeſt, / As you, that thus abuſe me. / Em[ilia]. As I: fough, fie vpon thee.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:

     Faugh! how it stinks! It doth not smell like a Christian.

   • 1900 Mary Harriott Norris (editor), 1823 Walter Scott (author), Quentin Durward, American Book Company, page 24:

     The very scent of the carrion—faugh—reached my nostrils at the distance where we stood.

   • 1913 June–December, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Countess Explains”, in The Return of Tarzan, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, […], published March 1915, →OCLC, page 42:

     “Civilized ways, forsooth,” scoffed Tarzan. “Jungle standards do not countenance wanton atrocities. There we kill for food and for self-preservation, or in the winning of mates and the protection of the young. Always, you see, in accordance with the dictates of some great natural law. But here! Faugh, your civilized man is more brutal than the brutes. […]”

   • 1922, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Introduction”, in Fantasia of the Unconscious, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Seltzer, →OCLC, page 4:

     The orthodox religious world says faugh! to sex. Whereupon we thank [Sigmund] Freud for giving them tit for tat.

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter VII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

     […] The thought was a bitter one, and I don't suppose I have ever come closer to saying ‘Faugh!’

See also

• fie