er

Definition

Said when hesitating in speech.

Etymology

Mimetic (sound of hesitation)

Example Sentences

• "“Er...Feathered Omen, hoot not,” he continued uneasily, “Son of Tanit, hoot not!”"
• "As the years go by, speech reverts to childhood levels of disfluency, with more pauses, more errors, more repeated words, but even the peak years are not great: up to 8 percent of the average person’s word output consists of meaningless fillers and placeholders like um, uh and er."
• "If he—er—disappears—well, it seems to me that we'd both benefit."