New thread--a curious thing

[jester at PANIX.COM]

>
> bob haas asks about exclamatory YIPES vs. YIKES.  as bob reports, AHD3
> has only YIPE/YIPES; ditto WNI3; RHDEL has only YIPE; wentworth &
> flexner has none of the variants.  on the british side, OED2 and the
> 1998 chambers have only YIKE/YIKES; ayto & simpson has only YIKES; the
> Collins Cobuild has none of them.

FWIW the OED has drafted an entry for _yipes,_ with cites going back
to 1955. The early examples are all from American sources.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED