An exclamation of calamity, misfortune or bad karma. Derives from Latin exclamation ("eheu"
literally translates as "Bummer!").
Likely to be the only word a student remembered from Latin class, at least in the days when students actually learned Latin rather than Media Studies and Modern
Dance.
Popularised in Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle'
s classic "How to Be Topp":
"The
Hogwarts
by
Marcus Plautus Molesworthus
Sene One. The villa of Cotta at Rome. Enter CORTICUS a dreary old slave and RADIX his mate
CORTICUS:(laying a skin of wine at the sideboard) Eheu!
(The headmaster and all lat. masters who watch roar with larffter)
RADIX: Eheu!
(More larffter they are in stiches)
CORTICUS: Eheu!
RADIX: Eheu!
(The curtain falls as the masters rolle helplessly in the aisles.)"
Sports
fan 1: I see "Abstain for the All Blacks" is fronted by possibly the least sexy sportsman
alive.
Sports fan 2: A fiver says the person who's *behind* the campaign is his
wife.
Sports fan 1: Quite possible, except she wouldn't actually fit behind it.
Sports fan 2: Eheu!