what the hell

English

Etymology

Shortened from earlier what in the hell.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Phrase

what the hell

1. (mildly vulgar, slang) An intensive form of what.

   What the hell is going on?

2. (mildly vulgar, slang) Indicating acceptance, indulgence, or insouciance: Why not? Who cares?

   It’s expensive, but what the hell, you only live once.

   Surprisingly, dieters ate more ice cream after eating a large milkshake than after eating a small one. Dr. Polivy calls this the “What the hell” effect, which she describes as thinking “What the hell, my diet’s already broken, so I might as well eat everything in sight.”

   • 1927, Don Marquis, “song of mehitabel”, in archy and mehitabel:

     i have had my ups and downs / but wotthehell wotthehell / yesterday sceptres and crowns / fried oysters and velvet gowns / and today i herd with bums / but wotthehell wotthehell

Usage notes

• Thought to be more vulgar in the US whilst less vulgar in the UK, Canada, and Australia.
• Although most intensive additions to question words (e.g. the hell, the fuck, on earth, etc.) are semantically interchangeable, most of them cannot replace what the hell in indicating acceptance, indulgence, or insouciance (sense 2 above). For example, what the fuck cannot usually have this meaning (but see sense 2 of what the fuck). However, what the heck can.

Synonyms

Intensive forms of what?

• the fuck
• the hell
• what on earth
• what the fuck
• what the heck
• what the what

 

Indicating acceptance, indulgence, or insouciance

• what the heck
• what the hey

 

Derived terms

• the hell

Related terms

• See the hell

Translations

an intensive form of what

• Arabic: مَاذَا بِحَقّ اَلسَّمَاء (māḏā bi-ḥaqq as-samāʔ)
• Bulgarian: какво по дяволите (kakvo po djavolite)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 乜鬼 (zh)

  Mandarin: 什麼鬼／什么鬼 (shénme guǐ?)

• Danish: hvad helvede
• Dutch: wat voor de donder?, wat donder?
• Esperanto: kio diable
• Finnish: mitä helvettiä?, mitä hittoa?
• French: que diable (fr)
• Galician: que carallo?, que demos?
• German: was zum Teufel?, was zur Hölle
• Greek: τι διάολο; (ti diáolo?), τι στο διάολο; (ti sto diáolo?), τι στο καλό; (ti sto kaló?)
• Hebrew: מָה לַעֲזָאזֵל (ma laazazél)
• Hungarian: mi a fene?, mi az ördög?, (possibly offensive) mi az isten?
• Icelandic: hvað í fjandanum?, hvað í helvítinu?
• Italian: che diavolo? cosa diavolo? (literally “the Devil's thing”)
• Japanese: 一体なんだ？ (いったいなんだ？, ittai nan da?), 一体全体なんだ？ (いったいぜんたいなんだ？, ittai-zentai nan da?), なんだよ、これ？ (nan da yo, kore?)
• Korean: 알게 뭐야? (alge mwo-ya?)
• Low German:

  German Low German: wat to'n Düvel?

• Navajo: shash líyáadi
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hva i helvete?, hva faen?

  Nynorsk: kva i helvete?, kva i svarte?, kva faen?

• Persian: چه مرگته؟, چه مرضته؟
• Portuguese: que diabos?
• Romanian: ce dracu, ce naiba
• Russian: что за чёрт? (što za čort?), како́го чёрта? (kakóvo čórta?), что за чертовщи́на? (što za čertovščína?), что за фигня́? (što za fignjá?), како́го хре́на? (kakóvo xréna?) (vulgar), како́го ху́я? (ru) (kakóvo xúja?) (vulgar), что за хуйня́? (što za xujnjá?) (vulgar)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Roman: koji vrag?, (slang, very vulgar) koji kurac?

• Spanish: qué diablos
• Swedish: vad i helvete?, vad tusan?, vad fan, vafan (sv)
• Thai: ฉิบหาย (th) (chìp-hǎai)
• Ukrainian: яко́го бі́са? (uk) (jakóho bísa?), що за біс? (uk) (ščo za bis?)
• Vietnamese: éo biết (vi), cái quái gì

why not?

• Danish: hvad fanden
• Dutch: lekker boeiend, ach schijt
• Finnish: mitä hittoa
• French: pourquoi pas (fr)
• Galician: que carallo!
• German: was soll's, scheiß drauf
• Hungarian: egye fene
• Icelandic: skítt með það
• Italian: che diavolo, perche no
• Norwegian: faen heller, søren heller
• Portuguese: que se dane, dane-se (pt)
• Russian: чем чёрт не шу́тит? (čem čort ne šútit?), была́ не была́ (ru) (bylá ne bylá), чёрт с ним (čort s nim)
• Swedish: vad fan (sv)

See also

• the hell you say