Alright, UK Dopers… What is “PHUT”?
The sound of a silenced gunshot?
It is in the movies anyway.
I think it’s a place where dances take place.
I once saw this sign advertising the HIPHOPHUT and all of the people heading for the PHUT said they were going there to dance.
(I don’t know who HIPHO is, though).
Reeder is basically correct.
The OED cites Kipling(1888) first. They also add
A wild guess: Is this the beef soup the Vietnamese pronounce “fuh?” If so, it’s a staple of Viet cuisine, with a thousand variations.
Yeap, samclem, my father (a Chinese-Maylasian who spent time in the UK amongst the Welsh and Scots then moved to NZ) uses is a like you would use ‘kaput’ and ‘fineto’.
He also uses it as a pseudo swear word amongst children; as a result I tend to say ‘phut’ alot under pressure.
Whence “phut?”
Um tut sut.
(We need some more context, bitte.)
I’m sure I’ve seen it used to mean the sound of a dart or pellet being fired from a gun.
I’m not certain though…
Or maybe whence phut is /usr/dict/mystery
I have seen this word “Phut” in the background on British television programs (Mr. Bean prompted this question). Is that a helpful context, DrFidelius?
AskNott: The Vietnamese noodle soup is called Pho (the o has an accent mark which resembles a question mark minus the period). Phut (with an acute accent mark), though, is the Vietnamese word for minute (as in 60 seconds).
hammerbach. Let me make it clearer. From the OED
Yes, bu why would someone write that on a wall? Or on a sign?
I don’t know. I’m British and have never seen it.
I always used it as an abbrev. for Pizza Hut.
Well, as we know, Mr. Bean is the prime source for studying popular British culture.
Rather as I know that there are many short bald men around London whose heads are frequently mistaken for breasts, from studying Benny Hill.
Really hammerbach, it is an absurdist comedy programme. The set designers must have felt “Phut” would be a funny thing to write on a wall, or use as a running gag. (I must admit I have seen very few episodes of the show in question, as the character sets my teeth on edge.)
Yes, I’m aware of all that (I wonder how many first impressions of American culture came from The A Team, or even worse, Jackass.) I have seen it elsewhere, but I can’t remember where. Oh, well…
Ah ha.
From the www.hsn.dk/rowan/info3-1.html+%22mr+bean%22+phut&hl=en&ie=UTF-8]Mr Bean episode guide (Site may have disappeared - link is to Google cache.
So, the writers of Mr Bean decided it would be funny to call a place “Club Phut”. That was presumably on the wall in the episode you saw.
That link again:
And another, that is still there:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Zone/7474/tvmrbean.html
Disclaimer: remember, we Brits are much funnier than Mr Bean would suggest.
No, that was the sign. I saw it scribbled on a wall in the episode in which he puts on swimming trunks over his trousers.
Some googling tells me that it might be connected to Thai resorts. but I have no time to follow that up.
And there is the theory that “Phut” might be shortened from HipHopHut". Dunno.
Hmm. “Club Phut” obviously = “Club Foot” (the deformity); who knows what the grafitti is all about.