Oh.

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As much as being passive-aggressive gets a bad rap, we all do it sometimes—especially on social media or in texts. When someone says something completely ridiculous or disappointing, or that genuinely ticks you off, a pithy “Oh.” can go a long way.

Generally speaking, oh is a common interjection with wide-ranging meaning, frequently used to express excitement or surprise. This is especially true when written with an exclamation point, e.g., “Oh! I can’t believe it! ”

It’s also used to show that you’ve acknowledged something: “Oh, I didn’t know that.” Oh can also signal a transition, e.g., Oh, I forgot to tell you.

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But if you’re the recipient of an Oh.,  often written with period as if a complete sentence, you might be in trouble. This formulation, which spread in the 1990s and 2000s thanks to cell phones and the internet, is often used to show that someone feels annoyed, disappointed, or let down–a dismissive acknowledgement stripped of any interest or enthusiasm.

A short dialogue, for illustration:

Person A: I bought you flowers!
Person B: Oh.

Rough. The period creates emphasis and pause; Person B, it seems, doesn’t like flowers.

Oh. is also commonly used as a component of the common text phrase, Oh. My. God., the periods again adding dramatic emphasis, in a Valley Girl sort of way.

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