ptui

English

Alternative forms

• pitooey, ptew, ptooey, ptooie

Etymology

Imitative But there is also the Ancient Greek πτύω, to spit, which is in Mark 7:33:

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 7:33:

And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [p͡tʼʰ], [p͡tʼʰə̥]
• (spoken) IPA^(key): /p(ə)ˈtuː.i/

Interjection

ptui

1. The sound of spitting.
   • 1974, Irving Howe, Eliezer Greenberg, Yiddish stories, old and new:

     I wake up and spit three times against the evil eye. Ptui, ptui, ptui. A dream. And fall asleep.

   • 1991, Anne Siew Kim Lim, Face to face: the street children of Bukit Ho Swee:

     She would go 'Ptui! Ptui! Ptui!' and seem to reinforce her curses (in a language as colourful as that of the boys') by stamping on her own spittle.

Translations

sound of spitting

• Finnish: pthyi
• French: ptui (fr)
• Greek: φτου (el) (ftou)

See also

• hawk tuah

Anagrams

• Tupi, puit, tipu