yahoo

[Amy West]

The yay-hoo pron is from Swift's work: the two groups are named
onomatopoetically (?). The Hwhynums (?) (too lazy to go down and look
in Swift) are named based on the horse's whinny sound. The Yahoos are
based on what sounds humans make (Yay! Hoo!).

I call people "yahoos" all the time. So do others in my family.
You're engaging in some very egocentric thinking, which is flawed.

>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.

---Amy West

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