"Yay long"

Sun Sep 29 04:17:13 UTC 2013

He is a verified instance in 1956 and an unverified instance that is
probably from 1955.

[ref] 1956 January, The American Mercury, "She Razzes Executives - and
They Love It!" by Edward Cope, Start Page 103, Quote Page 106, Column
1,  The American Mercury, Inc., New York. (Unz)

[End excerpt]
He had just been transferred to a big-city branch of a farm-machine
company and he was, she recalls, a definite country type himself.

JoVan claimed him as a long-unseen nephew. "Last time I laid eyes on
you, you was yea high." She indicated the height of a four-year-old
child.
[Begin excerpt]

Here is the match in GB that looks promising. A probe with 1955
indicates that the volume in GB contains at least a section that was
"Published by the SENATE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA 1955"

Year: 1955
Title: Partial report relating to workmen's compensation, Volume 1
Publisher: Senate of the State of California
(Google Books data may be inaccurate)

http://books.google.com/books?id=gn3zua52issC&q=%22yea+high%22#search_anchor

[Begin excerpt]
If they were to review all of the evidence and testimony — the record
of a given case — I don't think they could possibly accomplish it. I
have seen some of the files yea high. SENATOR MURDY : You don't think
there would be any
[End excerpt]

A syndicated column about words and phrases by William Morris
discussed this type of "yea" or "yay" twice in 1964. I will post some
excerpts.

Garson

On Sat, Sep 28, 2013 at 9:57 PM, Jim Parish <jparish at siue.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jim Parish <jparish at SIUE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Yay long"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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.
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> 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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>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>>
>
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