The Expression “Uff-Da!”

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Marion from Charleston, South Carolina.

Hey, Marion, welcome.

I have a weird one for you, at least weird for me.

It’s UFTA, spelled U-F-F. And then maybe there’s an apostrophe, sometimes yes, sometimes no, D-A. And, or a dash, something like that.

I’m from South Carolina, and I married a wonderful man from Minnesota. And it seems that that was something that was on people’s cars. You know, there’d be a bumper sticker, or somebody would say, Ufta. He couldn’t tell me where it came from, except that it was used like if you were lifting something heavy, which sort of made sense. But it also was used sort of an expression of that’s life or something.

So that’s my word, ufta. Ufta.

And do you use it yourself?

Me? No. No, I just laugh at it because it makes no sense to me. His father was Swedish and Norwegian. Bing, bing, bing, bing. Yeah, there it is. And they are from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, which the closest town is Fargo, North Dakota.

Well, Marion, the magic word that I rang the bell for was Norwegian, because this is originally our Norwegian expression. And it’s used pretty much, as you say, as an expression of general purpose expression, surprise, or I use it like wow, or gee whiz, or ay caramba, or oil. It’s just kind of a multi, it’s the multi-tool of the language. It’s got a lot of places that you can just drop oufta. Like oufta, the traffic is ridiculous. And that’s sort of how it’s used or on a bumper sticker just to show that you know what it means and maybe nobody else does.

It is especially common in Minnesota and Wisconsin. And our listeners there have heard this a lot. They know it very well. It might be strange to the rest of the country, but like you say, it’s on T-shirts and bumper stickers, and it’s incredibly common there. It’s just something they know as a local expression. They’re known for having that word as part of their vocabulary.

Is its origin in Norway, or it’s just Norwegians that sort of say it?

It’s Norwegian. It’s from Norwegian. Now, current Norwegian speakers don’t use it, but originally it was from Norwegian. I mean, it’s not common. It’s not something you would usually say. You would sound like a weirdo if you used it in regular everyday Norwegian in Norway, as I’ve been told by Norwegians. They might understand it, but it’s just not an everyday. It’s like, it’d be like somebody saying, alas, today, you know, as an interjection. We just wouldn’t do it.

Alas, alack, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, that sounds great. I’m so glad because I know the word, but it just didn’t, it made sense when it was used, but not really.

Not really. Particularly if you’re lifting something heavy. I mean, I can absolutely hear that. That might help a little bit, don’t you think?

It’s very context sensitive, you know? Sometimes it’s about disgust or negative things. Sometimes it’s about surprise and delight. It just really depends where the conversation’s going.

Yeah. Well, that’s great. I’m so glad. All is revealed. Marion, thank you so much for your call. We really appreciate it.

And thank you. I love your show.

Oh, yeah. Thank you very much. Bye-bye. Take care. Keep talking with you. Bye.

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