mnh

1. Alternative form of mmm.
   1. Expressing satisfaction.
      • 1948, Wendell Berry, “The Dark Country”, in A Place in Time: Twenty Stories of the Port William Membership, Berkeley, Calif.: Counterpoint, published 2012, →ISBN, page 128:

        [A] man such as he was, old enough to know better, maybe, and yet still plenty young, head entirely emptied out and filled entirely up again with happiness and closeness and generosity and welcome, Kate Helen there with him at the end of the one true known way of his life. He thought, “Oh my! Old Marster come up with something good as that, maybe what they say about Him is right. Not all of it, maybe. A lot of it. Whoo! Who knows? But something so good.” He said aloud, “Mnh!” And then, “Mnh-mnh-mnh!”

      • 1957, James Agee, chapter 2, in A Death in the Family, New York, N.Y.: McDowell, Obolensky, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 34:

        He had thought his imitation of good appetite was successful. “Don’t worry,” he said, spearing some more. / There wasn’t much to finish. She looked at him tenderly when he glanced down to see, and said nothing more about it. / “Mnh,” he said, leaning back.

      • 1991, Stanley Elkin, The MacGuffin, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, published 1992, →ISBN, page 151:

        Michael peeled his potatoes, his wife rubbed her red seasonings. Druff sniffed at the neutral, still unroasted air. “Mnh,” he said, “mhnn. Something smells good. Company coming?”

      • 1996, Diane McKinney-Whetstone, chapter 21, in Tumbling, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, →ISBN, page 165:

        Mnh, that hem is perfect. Those scallops took some time, but they were worth every minute.

      • 2004, Jardine Libaire, Here Kitty Kitty: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 184:

        He sipped, touched the petal of a white poinsettia on the table, pressed the wax of a red candle, but mainly he watched me at the stove. “Mnh, mnh,” he finally said. “You should wear that dress every day.”

      • 2005, Julia Cho, “BFE”, in American Theatre, volume 22, New York, N.Y.: Theatre Communications Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 48, column 3:

        panny: Isabel? I made mac and cheese. / isabel: Mnh.

   2. Showing thought, reflection, or confusion.
      • 1994, Nadine Gordimer, chapter 11, in None to Accompany Me, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 159:

        ‘So long as I’m happy’, mnh?—what all the parents deprived of grandchildren swallow bravely and say.

      • 1996, Diane McKinney-Whetstone, chapter 31, in Tumbling, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, →ISBN, page 260:

        Mnh, what that devil do, made you do it?

      • 2004, Jardine Libaire, Here Kitty Kitty: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 16:

        “Mnh," I said pensively. “Actually I got sidetracked by a storybook I’m illustrating.”

      • 2006, Keith Giffen, “Blood and Thunder”, in Annihilation Omnibus, New York, N.Y.: Marvel Worldwide, published 2014, →ISBN:

        MNH? / GO BACK TO SLEEP. / THAT AN ORDER? / A SUGGESTION. YOU’VE NEVER BEEN BIG ON ORDERS, GAMORA. / IS SOMETHING WRONG?

   3. Representing a sound produced with a closed mouth.
      • 1914, William John Hopkins, “The Digging-Men Story”, in The Doers, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →OCLC, page 5:

        And the first man struck his pickaxe down hard into the ground, and it made the ground grunt, Mnh! And the second man did the same, and the ground gave another grunt, Mnh!

      • 2009, Vanora Bennett, “Part Nine: The Treasure of the City of Ladies”, in Blood Royal, London: HarperCollinsPublishers, →ISBN, section 3, page 575:

        Only the slight furrow between his eyebrows suggested the agony of indecision he was in; only the faint ‘Mnh-mnh’ coming again from his throat as he cleared it.

      • 2020, Sue Miller, chapter 26, in Monogamy, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 250:

        He was singing—mnh, mnh, mnh, mnh—moving up and down again and again through just a few notes.