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ta-da or ta-dah or other variations (tuh-DAH) - inter., used as a mock fanfare to call attention to something.
In most uses, this is close to an exact synonym of voilà. This is also more recent than I expected, as its first attestation is from the early 1920s. This is supposedly imitative of a trumpet fanfare, though I usually think of those as having at least four notes: tuh tuh-tuh-TAH! Though I'm sure there's many more patterns than that. One dictionary notes that the closest thing to the opposite of ta-da is whomp-whomp, which is also imitative of brass, in that case of a sad trombone slide (which I usually think of as three notes).
---L.
In most uses, this is close to an exact synonym of voilà. This is also more recent than I expected, as its first attestation is from the early 1920s. This is supposedly imitative of a trumpet fanfare, though I usually think of those as having at least four notes: tuh tuh-tuh-TAH! Though I'm sure there's many more patterns than that. One dictionary notes that the closest thing to the opposite of ta-da is whomp-whomp, which is also imitative of brass, in that case of a sad trombone slide (which I usually think of as three notes).
---L.
