Word Nerd: Uff da!

Published 4:40 am Thursday, September 18, 2014

interjection

1. an all-inclusive exclamation introduced to the Pacific Northwest and Upper Midwest of the United States by 19th-century Scandinavian immigrants. Similar to the Yiddish oy vey, the expression has no single fixed meaning, but can express excitement, dread, disappointment, shock or dismay (usually mild) depending on the user’s tone within a given context

Origin:

From the Norwegian, uff, an interjection used primarily to express pain, sadness or fear, and da, meaning “then” or “when.”

“ERIC OLSEN (the Norwegian hero): But Mama, Papa said he met you under the table on the beer garden?!

MAMA (INGRID) OLSEN: Uffda! So DAT was who Dat was!”

— T.E. Philips, original Shanghaied in Astoria manuscript, 1984

“I speak Finnish. We say voi voi [oh my], but uff da is more fun – it’s a catch-all.”

— Saara Matthews, owner of Finn Ware in downtown Astoria