Er

Part of speech: interjection

Definitions

1. A vocal filler sound made while pausing or hesitating to think about what to say next
2. An interjection spoken to fill a gap in speech when someone is unsure how to continue talking
3. A hesitant murmur that a speaker produces mid-sentence while searching for the right word

Etymology: "Er" is one of those sounds people make before they have decided what to say, and its history is simply the history of that noise. Etymologists classify it as mimetic, meaning it imitates a sound rather than descending from an earlier word. Nobody coined it, and no older language supplies a root for it. What makes it unusual is that the sound is so widespread. Many languages have a comparable hesitation filler, which is why the form has no single parent language to trace. In English it appears in writing mainly as a transcription of speech, so the spelling records a vocal habit rather than a dictionary decision.

Synonyms: uh, um, erm