pho

1. 1
   noununcountable

   A Vietnamese soup built on a beef-based broth, usually served with rice noodles and, optionally, beef or chicken.

   She warmed up with a steaming bowl of pho on a cold winter evening.

   Good pho depends on a broth simmered for many hours with charred onion and spices.

   Note

   English borrowed the soup's name from Vietnamese phở and dropped the tone mark along the way. It usually behaves as a mass noun (a bowl of pho, good pho), though the plural phos is available when servings are counted. Marcelle Morphy's Recipes of All Nations (1935) already describes it for English cooks as "an Annamese soup held in high esteem," made with beef, a veal bone, onions and a bay leaf.

2. 2
   interjectionarchaic

   An exclamation expressing dismissive contempt.

   Pho! Such trifling concerns are beneath my notice.

   "Pho, what nonsense," he muttered, turning back to his book.

   Note

   Dickens could still put it in a character's mouth in Nicholas Nickleby (1838), but today it is a period piece. It suits historical fiction or deliberately old-fashioned mockery and sounds odd in ordinary speech. It stands alone or opens a retort before a comma, as in "Pho, what nonsense." It is a separate word from the Vietnamese soup and shares only its spelling.

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