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

[Wilson Gray]

And "God verdoeme!" as the Dutch say. What can you do with a
yay[spelled "ya"]hoo?

-Wilson

On Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 12:00 PM, Scot LaFaive <slafaive at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  Poster:       Scot LaFaive <slafaive at GMAIL.COM>
>
> Subject:      Re: yahoo (was: 'Top Words from 2007'...)
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  Oy vey.
>
>
>
>  On Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 10:51 AM, Tom Zurinskas <truespel at hotmail.com> wrote:
>  > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>  > 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
>  > >
>  > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>  > > 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
>  > >
>  > > ------------------------------------------------------------
>  > > 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
>  >
>
>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
 -Sam'l Clemens

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