the meaning of teh

March 18, 2004 12:30 PM

What does "teh" mean? I've seen it on several sites, including the site that must not be named, and it's usually used where "the" would be the more conventional choice. Is it like "intarweb"?

I realize it could be just an inadvertant misspelling, but the context that it appears in seems to be special and intentional.

Here is an example.

posted by bshort to Writing & Language (32 answers total)

It is geek-speak for "the". Fast typists are prone to accidentally typing "teh".
posted by sharksandwich at 12:36 PM on March 18, 2004

Yeah, it's misspelling-slang, probably connected with JeffK or other somethingawfulisms. The everything2 page describes it as an adjective intensifier, which explains the usage on that boingboing page.

There's probably a more in-depth etymological analysis of it somewhere...
posted by zsazsa at 12:36 PM on March 18, 2004

It's used to make fun of l33t-sp34k. IT IS TEH FUNNAY!

Or something like that.
posted by alex_reno at 12:36 PM on March 18, 2004

I prefer UBAR!!11 as an adjective intensifier, personally.
posted by gnomeloaf at 12:38 PM on March 18, 2004

Along the same lines: woot!

??????
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 12:40 PM on March 18, 2004

That's w00t!
posted by nicwolff at 12:50 PM on March 18, 2004

somethingawful, home of JeffK, is definitely where 'teh funnay' comes from....not sure about 'intarweb', but i think so.

somethingawful is also the spawner of 'all your base are belong to us'
posted by taumeson at 12:51 PM on March 18, 2004

In my experience, alex_reno has it about right.

I normally see it being used in a sarcastic/mocking way. A sort of cue that what's being said shouldn't be taken as real.
posted by mindless progress at 2:22 PM on March 18, 2004

UBAR
above all recognition
?
posted by seanyboy at 3:30 PM on March 18, 2004

What taumeson said, and szasza. Glad someone is tracking the lore.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:32 PM on March 18, 2004

I thought it was also to mock teeny speak. Or, at least, that's where I've always seen it.

"OMG Dom and Lijah were at the grocery store together and it was sooooo Teh Gay!"
posted by Katemonkey at 4:28 PM on March 18, 2004

It's basically imitating an impatient, fast teenager typing, often paired with l33t. For some reason it's started be used before adjectives, as in, "OMG that's teh awesome." No one actually talks that way, even the worst teenager, but it's just funny, I guess.
posted by abcde at 4:47 PM on March 18, 2004

sharksandwich, if you go around calling it "geek-speak" then you are likely to insult a whole lot of geeks.
posted by Galvatron at 4:54 PM on March 18, 2004

s/insult/offend
posted by Galvatron at 4:55 PM on March 18, 2004

The scary devil monastery delights in this and other fat-fingerage, such as "froup", "conslutant", and "cow-orker".
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 5:27 PM on March 18, 2004

"froup" is one of the oldest examples of the type, coming as it does from Usenet.
posted by kindall at 5:52 PM on March 18, 2004

pwned.
posted by oflinkey at 7:57 PM on March 18, 2004

u are teh douche.
posted by yerfatma at 8:12 PM on March 18, 2004

And just what is froup? I quite like conslutant and cow-orker.
posted by Goofyy at 10:22 PM on March 18, 2004

how katemonkey used it seems unusual to me.
posted by rhyax at 10:46 PM on March 18, 2004

It's a perfectly cromulent word.
posted by Tubes at 12:19 AM on March 19, 2004

somethingawful, home of JeffK, is definitely where 'teh funnay' comes from....not sure about 'intarweb', but i think so.

somethingawful is also the spawner of 'all your base are belong to us'

the appearance of b1ff predates jeffk by quite a bit.

somethingawful is where the photoshoppy bits of all your base came into being, but is not demonstrably the origin of the vidgamescreenshot/dub.
posted by juv3nal at 12:30 AM on March 19, 2004

UBAR=über.
posted by Mo Nickels at 3:50 AM on March 19, 2004

somethingawful is also the spawner of 'all your base are belong to us'

This. Is simply not true. All your base dates back to the classic game Zero Wing. Get your facts right. See here.
posted by armoured-ant at 4:36 AM on March 19, 2004

All your base dates back to the classic game Zero Wing.

Of course. Duh. Tautology ahoy, boys and gurls. Zero Wing was the object of the parody, but it didn't have teh funney until the parody began.

The remixes and photoshops and the repurposing of Zero Wing came out of the SA forums and went all memey. 'struth, son.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:56 AM on March 19, 2004

stavrostehwonderchicken speaks the truth

all hail teh wonder chicken
posted by jmgorman at 7:18 AM on March 19, 2004

And just what is froup?

Short for "newsfroup," a.k.a. "newsgroup."

Another great one that's not actually a typo is "furrfu," which is "sheesh" ROT-13 encoded. It comes from the alt.folklore.urban ("afu") newsfroup.
posted by kindall at 8:35 AM on March 19, 2004

Can someone explain r0x0r now?
posted by Robot Johnny at 8:45 AM on March 19, 2004

Another great one that's not actually a typo is "furrfu," which is "sheesh" ROT-13 encoded.

Along the same lines is "lytdybr," popular among Russians as the equivalent of ??????? (dnevnik) 'journal' -- it's what you get if you type ??????? while forgetting to change your keyboard to Cyrillic.
posted by languagehat at 9:07 AM on March 19, 2004

Aargh! It looked fine on preview...
posted by languagehat at 9:07 AM on March 19, 2004

Robot Johnny: here.
posted by O9scar at 9:33 AM on March 19, 2004

I really wanted to post this when the thread came up, before I was a member, so I'll do it now. here is a "teh" from 1993. Note presence of B1FF.
posted by kenko at 11:01 PM on April 8, 2004