hmmmm.

n.  a “comforting,” “supportive,” “nonverbal” murmur of attentive listening (Anne Lamott, Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year).

<I’d say something that was a thinly veiled plea for some advice or a pep talk, and she’d just say, “Hmmmm,” like she knew I was going to be able to answer my own question in a moment.  It seemed such a spiritually enlightened position to take.  —Anne Lamott, Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year.>

n.  a “trite expression of wonder, envy and awe” that, along with “oh my,” “well well,” “say now,” and “really?” “will cover your adventures in New York” (Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967).


n.  a chant from the Igbo Folk Epic from Sub-Saharan Africa, as discussed in Traditional Storytelling Today: An International Sourcebook by Margaret Read MacDonald.


n.  a gleeful giggle, as in the novel Mossflower by Brian Jacques; see also mmmmm.


n.  a murmur of mortification.

<Dad said, “Mike, you know about sex, right?  You had sex education.”  “Hmmmm,” I murmured, mortified that we’d have to talk about it!  —Michael Gurian, The Wonder of Boys: What Parents, Mentors and Educators Can Do to Shape Boys into Exceptional Men.>

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