yahoo (was: 'Top Words from 2007'...)

[Paul Johnston]

Tom,
I've heard yahoo used exactly as the definition says, often with
rednecky overtones, as well.  This from OH and MI.

Yours,
Paul Johnston
On Apr 1, 2008, at 11:51 AM, Tom Zurinskas wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: yahoo (was: 'Top Words from 2007'...)
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> Sorry about the strange characters in the phonetic spelling.  What
> the world needs is an English based phonetic spelling (truespel)
> that copies and pastes with no problem in email.
>
> We should all be familiar with the "yahoo.com" ads on TV.  It's
> pronounced YAH-hoo (~yaahue), or even yah-HOO (~yaahhue) in the TV
> ads, not YAY-hoo as m-w.com says (not that m-w.com isn't a great
> resource).  The ad pronunciation is perhaps a billion times more
> frequent in the ears of most folks than any other.
>
> I've never heard anyone called a "yahoo".  It's rare.  It's mostly
> a happy interjection!  Why would a website call themselves "yahoo"
> if the meaning usually stood for "crass boorish or stupid?.
>
> The logical "or" means the "yahoo person" can be boorish (surly
> rudeness), or crass (undignified), or stupid.  This is strange
> because one can boorish and crass without being stupid.
>
> Two lemmas for one word?  In most dictionries if a word has two
> uses or meanings they are given under one dictionary word (as m-
> w.com usually does).  It's nice to see that "yahoo" is recognized
> somewhere as an interjection (like yippee).
>
> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
> See truespel.com - and the 4 truespel books plus "Occasional Poems"
> at authorhouse.com.
>
>
>
>
>
>> Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2008 10:29:59 -0400
>> From: halldj at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU
>> Subject: yahoo (was: 'Top Words from 2007'...)
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>
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>> -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Damien Hall
>> Subject: yahoo (was: 'Top Words from 2007'...)
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----------
>>
>> Tom said:
>>
>>> Main Entry: 1ya·hoo
>>> Pronunciation: \ˈyā-(ˌ)hü, ˈyä-\
>>> Function: noun
>>> Inflected Form(s): plural yahoos
>>> Date: 1726
>>> 1capitalized : a member of a race of brutes in Swift's Gulliver's
>>> Travels who
>>> have the form and all the vices of humans
>>> 2[influenced by 2yahoo] : a boorish, crass, or stupid person
>>> — ya·hoo·ism \-ˌi-zəm\ noun
>>
>> (BTW, the strange characters, if you see strange characters above,
>> are what
>> appeared in my copy of this message, but I looked the word up in
>> _MW Online_ to
>> see what the lemma actually said.)
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>>> Strange definition 2; because one could be boorish and crass
>>> while not being
>>> stupid. They probably mean "and" stupid.
>>
>> No, the _or_ is disjunctive, not conjunctive: 'someone who (the
>> speaker
>> considers) is boorish, or crass, or stupid, or a combination of
>> one or more of
>> these'.
>>
>>> I thought the word "yahoo" was just a happy exclamation of
>>> western roots like
>>> yippee. But that's not in the definition above.
>>
>> No, because it is given a separate lemma in both _MW_ and the
>> _OED_ (to take
>> another example). In both dictionaries, the noun senses of _yahoo_
>> are
>> definition 1, and the interjection / exclamation sense is
>> definition 2.
>>
>> Damien Hall
>> University of Pennsylvania
>>
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