"Y" Word Origins

yehudit

Origin

Transliteration of Hebrew יְהוּדִית (y'hudít, “Judith”). Doublet of Judith.

Yelena

Latin

From Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Russian Еле́на (Jeléna), from Latin Helena, from Ancient Greek Ἑλένη (Helénē). Doublet of Helena.

yell

Old English

From Old English giellan, meaning "to yell" or "to resound" — related to words for shrieking sounds across the older Germanic languages.

yeller

Origin

Simply "yell" plus the agent suffix "-er", meaning "one who does the action."

yelling

Old English

The "-ing" noun form of "yell", tracing back to Old English.

yello

Origin

A casual blend of "yes" and "hello".

yellow

Old English

From Old English geolu, going back to a very old root shared across the Germanic and even wider Indo-European languages meaning "yellow" or "green".

yellowhead

Origin

From yellow + head.

yellowish

Origin

From Middle English ȝelowisch; equivalent to yellow + -ish.

yelp

Old English

From Old English gielp, originally meaning "boasting" or "pride" — the meaning shifted over time to describe a sharp cry rather than a boast.

yelping

Old English

The "-ing" form of "yelp", from Old English gielp.

Yeltsin

Russian

Transliteration of Russian Е́льцин (Jélʹcin).

Yemen

Arabic

From Arabic al-yaman, thought to derive from an ancient Semitic root meaning "right" or "right-hand side" — the region lying to the right (south) when facing east from Mecca.

yen

Chinese

The currency sense comes from Japanese en ("round object"), via Chinese yinyuan ("round silver piece"). The "craving" sense is unrelated, tracing instead to an old slang word for a craving for opium.

yens

Origin

A contraction of the older phrase "ye ones."

Yeo

Middle English

From Middle English ea, eo, from Old English ēa (“running water, water, stream, river”), from Proto-West Germanic *ahu, from Proto-Germanic *ahwō (“waters, river”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ekʷeh₂ (“water, flowing water”). Doublet of aqua. Compare ea, Eau, eau.

yeoman

Old English

Of disputed origin — possibly from an Old English compound meaning roughly "district man" (a man attached to a local area), or possibly a worn-down form of "young man".

yeomanry

Origin

From Middle English ȝemanry, yemandry, yema[n]ri, yemanrye, yomandrye, yomanry; equivalent to yeoman + -ry.

Yeong

Origin

Borrowed from Korean 영 (yeong).

yeow

Origin

An imitative word, similar to "ow" and "yowch", mimicking a cry of pain.

yep

Origin

A casual variant of "yeah", said with the lips snapping shut on the final sound — the same pattern that produced "nope" from "no".

yer

Russian

Borrowed from Russian names for these two letters, "ер" and "ерь".

yerk

Origin

From Middle English ȝerken (“to move suddenly, excite, bind tightly, attack”), from Old English ġearcian (“to prepare, make ready”), compare ġearc (“active, quick”). Cognate with jerk; see yare for more cognates.

yes

Old English

From Old English gise, meaning roughly "may it be so" or "certainly" — from the same root as "yea".

yeshiva

Hebrew

From Hebrew yeshivah, literally "sitting" — referring to sitting together to study.

yessir

Origin

A contraction of "yes" and "sir".

yessiree

Origin

From yes + siree, compare to yessir.

yessum

Origin

Contraction of yes, ma'am.

yester

Origin

From Middle English yester, yister, from Old English ġeostran (“yesterday”). Cognate with Dutch gisteren (“yesterday”), German gestern (“yesterday”). More at yesterday.

yesterday

Latin

From Old English giestrandæg, a compound of "yester-" (relating to the previous day) and "day".

yestern

Origin

Perhaps from yester + -en. Compare also Old English ġiestran (“yesterday”).

yestersol

Origin

From yester- + sol (“Martian day”), by analogy with yesterday.

yestertide

Origin

From yester- + tide (“time, season, period”).

yestertime

Origin

From yester- + time.

yesteryear

Origin

From "yester-" (previous) plus "year" — literally "last year", broadened over time to mean "the past" in general.

yestreen

Origin

From Middle English yestreen, alteration of yestereven (“last night, yesterday evening”), from Old English ġiestranǣfen (“yesterday evening”), equivalent to yester- + e'en (“evening”). Cognate with West Frisian justerjûn (“yestreen; last night”).

yet

Old English

From Old English giet, going back to Germanic roots meaning roughly "already" combined with a word meaning "toward" — the same distant root family as "aye".

yeti

Origin · 1937

Borrowed from Tibetan, from words meaning roughly "rocky" or "wild place" plus "bear" — first recorded in English around 1937.

yeuk

Origin

From (northern) Middle English *ȝuken, *ȝokken (suggested by Middle English ȝukynge, ȝokkyn (“itching”) and yuke (“an itching disease”)), from Middle Dutch jucken, jocken (“to itch”), from Old Dutch *jukken, from Proto-West Germanic *jukkjan (“to itch”). Doublet of itch.

Yeung

Origin

Borrowed from Cantonese 楊 /杨 (joeng4).

Yevgeny

Russian

Borrowed from Russian Евге́ний (Jevgénij), from Ancient Greek Εὐγένιος (Eugénios). Doublet of Eugene and Eugenius.

yew

Old English

From Old English iw, going back to a very old Indo-European root for this type of evergreen tree.

Yggdrasil

Old Norse

From Old Norse Yggdrasill, generally explained as combining "Yggr" (a name for Odin, meaning "the terrible one") with "drasill" ("steed") — poetically, "Odin's horse", referring to a myth of Odin hanging from the tree.

yh

English

A consonantal shortening of yeah, keeping only the first and last letters.

Yi

Origin

From Mandarin 彝 (yí).

Yiddish

German

From Yiddish yidish, itself from a Middle High German phrase meaning literally "Jewish German".

yield

Old English

From Old English gieldan, meaning "to pay" — the sense of "producing a result" and "giving way" both developed from this original idea of paying or giving something over.

yielding

Old English

The "-ing" adjective/noun form of "yield", from Old English gieldan ("to pay, yield").