"Yahooty" - Origin and definition

[Philip E. Cleary]

<It was used in the context of a fictitious or imaginary person, like under the following circumstance: Someone says, "Who took the last piece of pie?" And I'd say "Yahooty took it." when in fact it was I who took it. A sort of scapegoat. >

In our Bostonian family there is a mythical person who bears the responsibility for missing or broken objects, etc. He was introduced into the family by my wife, a native of Seattle, who learned of him from her mother, a Seattle native who spent a fair amount of time in NJ. My wife defines him as "the little man who isn't there" and (being a musician) always thought his name was "Yehudi."

Phil Cleary
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/attachments/20001130/ec84abfe/attachment.htm>