This juicy expletive cannot be enlisted without its exclamation point. “Feh!” is the Yiddish replacement for exclamatory expressions of disgust such as “Phew!” “Pee-oo!” and “Ugh!” It strikes me as a crisp and exact delineation of distaste. In saying “Feh!,” you may bare the teeth and wrinkle the nose, in visible reinforcement of the meaning.
Here are some circumstances in which “Feh!” may serve as the perfect utterance:
- Smelling a rotten egg
- Passing an open sewer
- Inhaling Los Angeles smog
- Driving past the sulfur pits that fringe New York in New Jersey
- Whiffing a rotten fish
- Describing an old biddy (if you are young)
- Describing a beautiful tart (if you are old)
- Summarizing a political position you detest
- Appraising the honor or benevolence of an enemy
- Contemplating an operation for hemorrhoids
- Responding to an invitation to a bullfight
- Reporting (the next day, to your loved ones) how the overripe grouse or pheasant smelled at the dinner last night, which, excuse the expression was plain chaloshes.
- Delineating the character of the paskudnyak who ran off with your wife
- Reporting a klutz's performance of Mozart
- Recounting how a soprano murdered an aria
- Depicting a hangover
- Portraying strongly negative feelings about any sight, event, person, crisis, experience or emotion. (“Feh! I salute you!”)
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