"Yay long"

[Jim Parish]

Joel S. Berson wrote:
> Did Jim Parish or his communicant see "yay" in print, or is it a
> rendering of something merely spoken?
>
> I, like a couple of others, would have spelled it "yea".

I don't recall whether I've ever seen it in print, unless perhaps in a
letter from my brother; but "yay" has always been the spelling I've
assigned to it. More, I can see someone reading "yay" and pronouncing it
/jai/, as my friend did; I can't see that with the spelling "yea". I'll
check with both of them and report back.

Jim Parish


>
> How about from "yea, adv.", "3. Used to introduce a statement,
> phrase, or word, stronger or more emphatic than that immediately
> preceding: = 'indeed'; 'and more': = yes adv. 4"?  In the example of
> "yay long", an adverb preceding an adjective and intensifying it?
>
> Joel
>
> At 9/28/2013 08:19 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> I too instinctively spell it "yea."
>>
>> So what?
>>
>> If it's from OE "yea," why did it take a thousand years to appear in print?
>>
>> JL
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Sep 28, 2013 at 7:23 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>> Subject:      Re: "Yay long"
>>>
>>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> On Sep 28, 2013, at 7:09 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>>>
>>>> Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yea) traces this back to OE,
>>> then Proto-Germanic and PIE, undifferentiated from "yea" meaning yes.
>>>> The OED speculates that "yay" comes from "yea."
>>>>
>>>> Benjamin Barrett
>>>> Seattle, WA
>>> Now that you mention it, I've always spelled the adverb (or visualized it
>>> spelled) "yea", not "yay".  Although I suppose if it's a very big fish it
>>> could be both.
>>>
>>> LH
>>>> Learn Ainu! https://sites.google.com/site/aynuitak1/videos
>>>>
>>>> On Sep 28, 2013, at 2:37 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>>> wrote:
>>>>> Bugs Bunny used it. He's neither black nor human. I believe the phrase
>>> was
>>>>> "Oh, about yay by yay," with appropriate gestures.
>>>>>
>>>>> I don't know the the title or the date of the cartoon, but it was
>>> probably
>>>>> in the early '50s.
>>>>>
>>>>> To judge from GB and NewspaperArchive.com, it seems to be very rare in
>>>>> print.
>>>>>
>>>>> JL
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sat, Sep 28, 2013 at 3:06 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu
>>>> wrot=
>>>>> e:
>>>>>
>>>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>>>> -----------------------
>>>>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>>>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>>>>> Subject:      Re: "Yay long"
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
>>>>> ------
>>>>>> On Sep 28, 2013, at 12:57 PM, W Brewer wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> My Chapman's 1986 calls it "A sort of demonstrative adverb used with
>>>>>>> adjectives of size, height, extent, etc. and often accompanied by a
>>> han=
>>>>> d
>>>>>>> gesture indicating size". 1950s & esp black. "To this extent; this;
>>> so"=
>>>>> .
>>>>>>> Spells it <yea> (YAY).
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> In the old days, Charles Fillmore used to point out that "yay" is the
>>> one
>>>>>> word that can't be sensibly uttered over the phone. (Other
>>> demonstratives
>>>>>> have anaphoric uses, but "yay" doesn't, in contexts like "The fish I
>>> caug=
>>>>> ht
>>>>>> was {this/that/yay} big.  And you could even say "The agreement is this
>>>>>> close to being signed" without prior mention of what "this" is, but not
>>>>>> "The agreement is yay close to being signed" without my being able to
>>> see
>>>>>> you holding your fingers apart=E5=8E=83ay much.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Of course that was before iChat, Skype, and other picture phone
>>>>>> conversations.
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>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
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>
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