The ultimate expression of indifference, "Meh.", made it into the dictionary:

Meh, which can mean unimpressed, mediocre or boring, was chosen as the public's entry for the 30th anniversary edition of Collins English Dictionary which will be published next year.

While the term is probably not another term originating in "the Simpsons", it was prominently featured in an episode:

Cormac McKeown, head of content at Collins Dictionaries, said: "This is a new interjection from the US that seems to have inveigled its way into common speech over here. "It was actually spelled out in The Simpsons when Homer is trying to prise the kids away from the TV with a suggestion for a day trip. "They both just reply 'meh' and keep watching TV; he asks again and Lisa says 'We said MEH! - M-E-H, meh!'

Does that make "meh" a perfectly cromulent word? I think so.

"Meh." fortune cookie picture CC by-sa licensed by Rick Harris on flickr.

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By the way, when he refers to "Ohio", he means the state's unique relationship to voting machines.

(via killefit)

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When I recently watched a slideshow on flickr, I noticed this in the slideshow settings:

It seems, flickr developers watch the Simpsons too. The word embiggen, along with cromulent, was introduced (read: made up) in the episode "Lisa the Iconoclast" and has since been widely used in popular culture. So widely even, that at least cromulent made it into Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English as a slang term.

Hm. Flickr is re-gaining some sympathy here (for this and other reasons I may soon blog about).

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When I read dictionary.com's word of the day today:

aggrandize: To make or make appear great or greater.

... I thought, ah! That must be the same as embiggen!

However, I wonder: Is "aggrandize" a perfectly cromulent word? ;)

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