Antedating of "Yada Yada"

Shapiro, Fred fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU
Fri May 23 20:01:21 UTC 2008


The OED's first use of "yada yada" and its variants is a1967 from Lenny Bruce.  The site phrases.org.uk has earlier evidence, citing "an August 1948 edition of the Long Beach Independent":

"Yatata ... yatata ... the talk is all about Chatterbox, Knox's own little Tomboy Cap with the young, young come-on look!"

Presumably the precise citation could be found by searching Newspaperarchive.

Fred Shapiro

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