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!