yahoo

[Tom Zurinskas]

Thanks Mike,

Being an old geezer with a lot of TV westerns under my belt, I'm not as accepting as thee when I'm told that "yahoo" is pronounced YAY-hoo (yay as in hay) ~yaehue.  Never heard that.  It's always been YAH-hoo ~yaahue as in the website name or yah-HOO ~yaahhue as an exclamation.

Right.  There is a second entry that pops up showing "yahoo" as an interjection.  So you must cursor down to select it to see the info.  Why that's a good idea I don't know.  I'd like one word with all the info under it so I don't miss selecting something.  I wonder if it's new, because I've been using m-w.com for years.  It's a great free resource.

If they use OR then a yahoo as defined might not be stupid.  I don't think a yahoo is supposed to be smart.  According to that definition (using OR) a smart person that happens to be boorish can be called a yahoo.

Strange word "boorish" ~boorish.  It has the sound of "oo" in "foot".  Before "r" is rare.

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
See truespel.com - and the 4 truespel books plus "Occasional Poems" at authorhouse.com.





> Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2008 17:31:02 -0400
> From: mcovarru at PURDUE.EDU
> Subject: Re: yahoo
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Michael Covarrubias
> Subject: Re: yahoo
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Tom Zurinskas wrote:
>
>> The basic issues were.
>> 1. m-w.com's majority pronunciation is YAY-hoo (yay as in hay), but I'd think it is YAH-hoo or yah-HOO.
>>
> OED lists only [ja:hu:] for the N. As I said before -- YAY-hoo is new to
> me. But I'm willing to accept that it's out there somewhere regardless
> of what I've heard.
>> 2. m-w.com doesn't recognize yahoo as an interjection, which is obvious to me as the majority use, as yahoo.com would after the interjection not the noun (stupid person).
>>
> M-W.com does recognize the interjection. Look carefully after you do the
> search. You'll see the following:
> yahoo
> 2 entries found.
> yahoo[1,noun]
> yahoo[2,interjection]
>
> Click on the second and you'll get your longed-for entry.
>
>> 3. m-w.com defines a "yahoo" as a "boorish (rude), crass (undignified), OR stupid person." I maintain they must mean AND not OR as one could be smart and boorish and crass as well. Otherwise a boorish person is a yahoo, a crass person is a yahoo, and a stupid person is one two.
>>
>
> I maintain that they mean OR because they mean to say that a boorish
> person is a yahoo, and a crass person is a yahoo, and a stupid person is
> a yahoo as well.
>
> This allows for the following:
> a sensitive and crass and smart person is a yahoo.
> a sensitive and delicate and stupid person is a yahoo.
> a sensitive and crass and stupid person is a yahoo.
> a boorish and delicate and smart person is a yahoo.
> a boorish and delicate and stupid person is a yahoo.
> a boorish and crass and stupid person is a yahoo.
> a boorish and crass and smart person is a yahoo.
>
> n.b. that the last type is *supposed* to be allowed by the construction.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

_________________________________________________________________
Going green? See the top 12 foods to eat organic.
http://green.msn.com/galleries/photos/photos.aspx?gid=164&ocid=T003MSN51N1653A

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org