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A shortened version of the phrase “as per usual” is now used as slang when referring to something that is typical or expected, often in an exaggerated or hyperbolic manner. For example:

Bill: Mike is late, again!
Sara: As per usual.

But instead of saying “as per usual”, the slang version shortens usual to pronounce the first syllable only, which I lazily make an attempt to spell as “ujj”. (IPA /juːʒ/ ―tchrist)

And the question is. . . .

Is there a definitive spelling for the shortened version of “as per usual” — or, more specifically, for the shortened version of usual?

tchrist
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stevvve
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    Youdge. Yooge. Yewj. Yikes, this is tough. – hairboat Jun 26 '12 at 20:32
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    Never heard the phrase shortened. Is this an American thing? – Rory Alsop Jun 26 '12 at 20:35
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    @Rory It's very probably a specifically American thing, narrowed even more specifically to the under 30 age group. (That's my own estimation, I have no source for this info.) – hairboat Jun 26 '12 at 20:40
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    How does the twit crowd spell it? #rhymeswithluge – cornbread ninja 麵包忍者 Jun 26 '12 at 20:44
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    As an American, I've rarely, if ever, heard 'as per usual' used in its entirety. Usually, the per is dropped and one only says 'as usual.' Even more common with younger people is to use 'typical' (often accompanied by an eye roll). – Fisher Jun 26 '12 at 22:18
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    People shorten "usual"? I would have great difficulty understanding someone who said "as per ujh", and even greater difficulty taking them seriously. – Christi Jun 26 '12 at 22:40
  • What @Christi said. But given some people do say it, I think if we're forced to write it we should go with "uge" (as a minute on Google suggests the majority do). The pronunciation is close enough to "huge" to be recognisable. In principle, "ouge" (from shortened "rouge") is more precise - but it's a throwaway nonce-word anyway, so I wouldn't waste an extra letter "o" on it. – FumbleFingers Jun 27 '12 at 00:35
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    I see a lot of suggestions here so far, but am surprised not to see the obvious "YOOZH" – nohat Jun 27 '12 at 03:39
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    @Fisher: as usual is recorded 150 years before as per usual (1719 vs. 1869, according to the OED), so I don't think there's any 'dropping' involved in as usual. – Colin Fine Jun 27 '12 at 10:52
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    See also the “cazh” question. – tchrist Jan 12 '13 at 23:46
  • AS PER USUAL IS A TAUTOLOGY - "per" means "as" –  Mar 31 '14 at 15:15
  • Are you kidding, or what, please?

    If your Question doesn't boil down to "what's a useful short-form for 'usual', " then what does it mean, please?

    If it does boil down to "what's a useful short-form for 'usual', or even “as per usual” then what are you suggesting?

    Specifically, what benefit could you imagine in abbreviating “as per usual”, please?

     – Robbie Goodwin Jun 04 '18 at 21:56
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    @Robbie I fail to see any lack of clarity in the question. The word usual is sometimes clipped in speech to something pronounced /juːʒ/. The question is asking whether that abbreviation has a standard spelling (similar to how the clipped colloquial form of business is standardly spelt biz, as in showbiz). How you read this as “what is a useful short form of usual?”, I don’t understand. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jun 05 '18 at 07:06
  • Sorry I don't do phonetics and still, any suggestion that "clipping" something like “usual” would be an abbreviation will always be met with suspicion… try it on your peers, colleagues or friends in the pub.

    How you begin to try not to understand “a… short form of usual?” isn’t just incredible; it’s shameful.

    If you're asking about something like "as per uzh…" please say so.

    Either way I happen never to have heard any such contraction despite travelling around all of the British Isles, significant parts of US America and Australia and some of Africa.

     – Robbie Goodwin Jun 05 '18 at 18:31
  • The point isn’t at all whether there’s a definitive spelling for the shortened version of “as per usual” — or, more specifically, for the shortened version of usual.

    Rather, the point is whether such shortened versions are well-enough recognised to matter.

    I suggest they are not; what you’re asking about is no more than laziness or a freak of slang and has no useful place…

     – Robbie Goodwin Jun 05 '18 at 18:33
  • Please at least show an example of this in a text like an text message,twitter or whatever. What *shortened version of as per usual*??? – Lambie Sep 28 '18 at 13:44
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    I see people arguing on an EL&U question... as per yuze :-) – TripeHound Sep 28 '18 at 14:08
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    For people considering writing a new answer, or updating an existing answer, there's now a Merriam-Webster article on the word – "Shortening 'usual': easy to say, hard to spell". The article seems to have been posted in late 2017. – MetaEd Sep 28 '18 at 20:12

5 Answers5

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The reason this problem arises is that the consonant in the middle of usual - which phoneticians call the voiced palatoalveolar fricative, and which is written in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) as [ʒ] - doesn't have a fixed representation in the English writing system. When it occurs in words borrowed from other languages, we usually keep the original spelling (luge, rouge, gendarme) and when it occurs in a native English word, we write it with an S (measure, usual, pleasure). In particular, it never occurs at the end of a native English word, only in loanwords like luge.

In any case, it's relatively rare in English (loanwords or no), so as English readers and writers we don't have much data from which to conclude what the "best" or "most common" way to write [ʒ] is.

Therefore, when truncations like as per usual -> as per yuʒ occur (a problem which, by the way, is not unique to "as per usual" - as this previous question reveals, the common slang phrase business caʒ for business casual has the same orthographic difficulty) the only unambiguous way to write it is to use that IPA character, ʒ.

Since, obviously, most people can't read IPA, the question boils down to "how do I write a sound that my language's writing system doesn't let me write?" You're stuck with a large variety of more or less confusing approximations:

  • uzh / yuzh (my personal preference); zh is a logical way to write [ʒ] since it is the voiced counterpart of the English sh sound (in layman's terms, zh is to sh as z is to s).
  • uge / youge / yuge, by analogy with rouge, luge, and (approximately) huge.
  • and any of the other suggestions in the comments above

Ultimately, this question can't be answered without considering why and for whom you would write such a thing down, anyway. It's an almost exclusively spoken form. In those rare situations which would force you to write it - dialogue for a novel or screenplay, let's say - the most you could do is probably just choose one of the above options and hope your audience is familiar enough with the construction to figure it out.

Janus Bahs Jacquet
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alcas
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    You would write it in something like Slack or a text message. Any informal typing setting – Carlos Bribiescas Mar 02 '17 at 16:18
  • I do not even know if it exists. A shortened version of as per usual?? Where is an example? – Lambie Sep 28 '18 at 13:45
  • +1 for yuzh specifically. @Lambie I think the example would just be "as per yuzh". Where yuzh is almost used as a contraction or shortened form of usual. There is no shortened form of the entire expression but rather just the word usual itself. – justin.m.chase Jan 02 '19 at 18:01
  • @justin.m.chase I am very hard pressed to imagine this as a spoken thing. It's just instant messaging shorthand but is not a spoken form. – Lambie Jan 03 '19 at 13:35
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    The opposite is likely true, I've heard people say it plenty of times but I came here because I've never seen the written form and didn't know how to spell it. It's a sort of humorous or or casual expression, not common for sure but even more rarely written as far as my experiences go. I believe its something I've even heard spoken in movies, though I have a hard time searching for it due to a lack of consensus on how to spell it. – justin.m.chase Jan 03 '19 at 19:02
  • @Lambie - you're asking for a written example of something that is almost exclusively used in spoken form, most likely for the exact reason the question was originally asked. People attempting to type it get jammed up on the spelling and instead just spell out the word in its entirety. I'm here right now because I was typing a text to a buddy wanting to use the shortened version and not knowing what's best. I leave here still not knowing but heartened to see there is an intelligent online discussion about such an obscure subject. – elPastor Mar 25 '21 at 20:30
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There's no definitive spelling, but as per ushe is a common one with the benefit of being fairly unambiguous.

Alternatives include as per use, but that could be confused with "for each use", and as per uje, but that looks a bit odd.

The OED doesn't include either, but does note as per is also a shortened form.

Hugo
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I like to write it in IM or text...yoosh. the spelling bothers me enough to Google it and bring me here.

user282711
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    I wonder the same thing @alcas does — why would you write an abbreviation that is (1) as long as the word it is an abbreviation for, and (2) much, much less likely to be understood? – Scott - Слава Україні Feb 20 '18 at 20:21
  • Hello, 282. Answers on ELU are [nowadays] required to be supported by evidence; unsupported answers come across as (and may be merely) personal opinion. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 05 '18 at 09:51
  • @Scott to accurately convey how you talk, which is sort of what writing was originally invented for I think. –  Oct 21 '19 at 02:33
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Urban Dictionary has some up votes for ushe.

Stork Exchange
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  • Thanks. Urban Dictionary can be helpfully authoritative sometimes. – user22542 Sep 28 '18 at 16:04
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    This is a fact, which is a great start. What the answer is missing is an expert and provably correct answer: "yes" or "no". A fact like this would be a good start on proving the answer is correct. – MetaEd Sep 28 '18 at 20:09
  • And a direct link to the U.D. entry would also add value to your answer. Linked references are strongly encouraged on our site :-) – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten Sep 29 '18 at 00:02
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I've heard this as a teenager. I DO believe that it is an American thing. I am American anyways. I have also heard it on Family Guy. lol. I would spell it "yewge"... personally.

Mark
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