[Ads-l] Antedating of "Yo" (Greeting)

[Shapiro, Fred]

I was aware of Stallone saying "Yo Adrian !" at the end of the movie "Rocky."  But the sense I was trying to antedate was a simple greeting or response to greeting and the famous "Yo Adrian" line seemed to me to illustrate some other one of the shades of meaning mentioned in the OED definition.  Ben's email rightly points out that there are many other "Yo"s in the film.  I looked at the final draft of the movie script (7 Jan. 1976) online and there is an abundance of simple greetings - "Yo Rock,' "Yo Gloria," "Yo Mike," "Yo Paulie," etc., etc.  These are exact antedatings of the OED sense I was focused on.

Fred Shapiro

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Ben Zimmer <00001aae0710f4b7-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2025 11:34 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Antedating of "Yo" (Greeting)

Are we counting "Yo, Adrian" (among various other "yo"'s) in _Rocky_
(1976)?

On Thu, Jul 24, 2025 at 6:45 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <
00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> The same greetings appeared in an earlier comic strip
> Correction: There were no exclamation marks in this strip.
>
> Date: August 18, 1979
> Newspaper: The Modesto Bee
> Newspaper Location: Modesto, California
> Section: Comics (Date on comic section is August 19, 1979)
> Comic Strip Title: The Born Loser
> Comic Strip Artist: Art Sansom
> Quote Page Unnumbered 6
> Database: Newspapers.com
>
> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newspapers.com%2Farticle%2Fthe-modesto-bee-yohurricane%2F177388717%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C121930913b3b4309e2ba08ddcb2c364d%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638890112929631038%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=EFLoTQ36tDS%2F8Ufc9dEtip0AHyVZyDQ8msmvm85LXvA%3D&reserved=0<https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-modesto-bee-yohurricane/177388717/>
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Panel 01
>  YO, BRUTUS.
>  YO, HURRICANE.
>
> Panel 03
>  CARE FOR A BANANA, HURRICANE?
> [End excerpt]
>
> On Thu, Jul 24, 2025 at 6:41 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > The same greetings appeared in an earlier comic strip
> >
> > Date: August 18, 1979
> > Newspaper: The Modesto Bee
> > Newspaper Location: Modesto, California
> > Section: Comics (Date on comic section is August 19, 1979)
> > Comic Strip Title: The Born Loser
> > Comic Strip Artist: Art Sansom
> > Quote Page Unnumbered 6
> > Database: Newspapers.com
> >
> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newspapers.com%2Farticle%2Fthe-modesto-bee-yohurricane%2F177388717%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C121930913b3b4309e2ba08ddcb2c364d%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638890112929653788%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=RpdAGq3EzvKDC0N7ZaRQYDNlHO%2B97U9HWmcZGRovWxM%3D&reserved=0<https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-modesto-bee-yohurricane/177388717/>
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > Panel 01
> >  YO, BRUTUS!
> >  YO, HURRICANE!
> >
> > Panel 03
> >  CARE FOR A BANANA, HURRICANE?
> > [End excerpt]
> >
>

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