What is the meaning of “Duh”?

The term “Duh” is an expression that has a hint of sarcasm from the person saying it.  Duh literally means “of course” but with some sarcastic flavor to it.  This term is not just used to agree to something or an idea by implying that the particular idea or situation is right and worth agreeing to.  Using “Duh” means more than that and actually contains sarcasm and perhaps some disgust that a particular idea or situation happens to be very obvious and is considered a “no-brainer”.

Like when a group of friends witness another person being ridiculed in front of a class with this person’s face turning red, some witnesses to the scene may later share this story to another person and exclaim that the person being ridiculed must have felt really embarrassed in front of his/her class.  And since it is pretty obvious that this particular situation is very embarrassing, the person being told to about this story may respond with “Duh!” which simply implies that his/her friend doesn’t have to explain in detail about the situation to make it embarrassing for the character of the story.  In obvious situations like this one, “Duh!” is an appropriate thing to say.

Other than its application on something that’s really obvious, the expression “Duh!” may also be used for a similar situation wherein someone is expected to know something already.  Like for example a group of students are chatting and realizes that they will be having a quiz the next day. And when one in the group points out that he/she may have to bring books for studying at home, other members may respond with “Duh!” since it is not necessary to blurt out the necessity of books for studying for a particular quiz.

The expression “Duh!” may be used quite appropriately in some situations because it connotes some form of sarcasm, but other people may get offended by this statement.  What may be obvious for one person may not be that obvious for the other and so the person being responded with “Duh!” may get offended or get hurt with the term.