[ajdude]

This is unrelated but I've been noticing recently a great deal of comments both on HN and Reddit starting with "Huh?"

Is this a developing slang or have I just been under a rock and only noticed it now?

[dgoldstein0]

Under a rock. That's been a common interjection for decades in casual conversation, at least in the US.

I can't say for certain about it's commonality online in written form though.

[eesmith]

Agreed. As an interjection, consider Scooby's 'Huh?' sound from the early 1970s cartoon series.

[dotancohen]

I believe that it means "I disagree". It seems common on platforms where language is not sophisticated, but rarely do I see these on HN.

[wlonkly]

It's worse than that, it's feigned surprise. "I disagree" is at least intellectually honest, "Huh?" is pretending that the position is so far off that they couldn't even understand it.

I learned the term "feigned surprise" from Recurse Center's social rules[1]. It's related to, but not exactly the same as, that well-known XKCD about "today's 10000", too[2].

[1] https://www.recurse.com/social-rules

[2] https://xkcd.com/1053/

[hollerith]

Why is it feigned? Why can't it be (mild) genuine surprise?

[JumpCrisscross]

> Is this a developing slang or have I just been under a rock and only noticed it now?

It communicates disagreement and pushback to perceived aloofness.

Its archetypal form would be an academic making a Monty Python Witch Trial argument being refuted by an average Joe. You generally don't see it followed by a rigorous intellectual argument, because by its framing it's rejecting intellectualism. Put another way, it's a call to common sense. In reality, it tends to reflect an inchoate argument,.