"Y" Word Origins

yieldly

Origin

From yield + -ly.

yikes

Origin · 1900

First recorded in the mid-20th century; likely descended from older hunting exclamations like "yoicks", used to spur on hounds, with the meaning shifting over time into a general cry of alarm.

Yim

Origin

Borrowed from Cantonese 嚴 /严 (jim⁴) or Cantonese 閻 /阎 (jim⁴).

yin

Chinese

From an early romanization of Chinese yin, originally referring to the shaded side of a hill or building.

yin and yang

Chinese

From Chinese yin, the shaded northern side of a hill, and yang, its sunlit southern side.

Ying

Origin

From various romanizations of the Mandarin pronunciations of various Chinese names, including 應 /应 (Yīng or Yìng), 郢 (Yǐng), and 嬴 (Yíng).

yip

Middle English

Likely imitative — the word simply mimics the sound itself, going back to a Middle English word for cheeping like a bird.

yippee

Origin

An imitative exclamation, thought to be a playful stretch of "hip" (as in "hip hip hooray").

yisrael

Origin

Variant of Israel.

Yiu

Chinese

From the Hakka or Cantonese pronunciation of Chinese 姚 (Yáo). Doublet of Yao.

yo

Old English · 1900

Traced back to Middle English variants of "yea"/"yes," ultimately from Old English "gea." Its modern casual-greeting sense took off in early-20th-century Philadelphia and spread worldwide through pop culture.

yob

Origin

Backslang for boy. The second sense was likely influenced by hobnob and/or yokel.

yobo

Origin

Borrowed from Korean 여보 (yeobo, “darling, sweetheart”).

Yoda

Sanskrit

The character's name may come from the Sanskrit word for "warrior."

yodel

German

Borrowed from German "jodeln," describing the same style of singing associated with Alpine folk music.

yodelayheehoo

Origin

Imitative.

yoga

Sanskrit

From Sanskrit "yoga," meaning "yoking" or "union," from a root meaning "to join" — the same ancient root that gives us the English word "yoke."

yogi

Sanskrit

From Hindi and Sanskrit "yogin," meaning one who practices yoga, from the same root that gives us "yoke" and "join."

yogurt

Ottoman Turkish

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish "yoğurt," ultimately from a Turkic root related to curdling or thickening.

Yoichi

Japanese

Borrowed from Japanese よういち (Yōichi).

yoke

Old English

From Old English "geoc," from a very old Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to join" — the same root that gives us "yoga" and "jugular."

yokel

Old English · 1812

First recorded around 1812; possibly from a German nickname related to "Jakob," or from an old English dialect word for the green woodpecker.

yokibus

Origin

From yoke + jocular Latin -ibus. Compare thingumajig.

Yoko

Japanese

Borrowed from Japanese ようこ (Yōko), a female given name with many variant kanji spellings.

Yokohama

Japanese

Borrowed from Japanese 横浜(よこはま) (Yokohama).

Yokoyama

Japanese

Borrowed from Japanese 横山 (Yokoyama).

yola

Origin

Derived from Yola yola (“old”).

Yolanda

Spanish

From Spanish Yolanda, the form of a medieval royal name of obscure, probably Germanic, origin. It has been identified with Latin Violante and with Ancient Greek ἴον (íon, “violet”) + ἄνθος (ánthos, “flower”).

yolande

Origin

Borrowed from French Yolande. Doublet of Yolanda.

yolk

Old English

From Old English "geolca," related to "geolu" meaning "yellow" — the yolk is literally "the yellow part."

YOLO

Origin · 2011

An acronym for "you only live once," a phrase dating back to the 19th century; the acronym itself was popularized around 2011 by the rapper Drake and entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 2016.

yon

Old English

From Old English "geon," related to modern German "jener" ("that one").

yonder

Old English

From Old English "geonre" ("yonder"), built on the same root as "yon" plus the comparative ending seen in "hither" and "thither."

Yong

Origin

The romanization of various Chinese and Korean surnames, including Mandarin 雍 (Yōng), Cantonese 楊／杨 (joeng4), Hakka 楊／杨 (Yòng), Cantonese 容 (jung4), Korean 용(龍) (Yong), etc.

yoni

Sanskrit

From Sanskrit "yoni," referring to the female generative organ or "source."

yonic

Origin

From yoni + -ic, from Sanskrit योनि (yoni).

Yonkers

Dutch

From Dutch "jonkheer," meaning "young lord" or "esquire," reflecting the area's early Dutch colonial history.

yonks

Origin

Unknown. First seen in print around 1960. One theory is that it comes from donkey's ears; another is that it is an abbreviation of years, months and weeks.

Yoon

Origin

Borrowed from Korean 윤(尹) (Yun).

yore

Old English

From Old English "geara," related to the word "year" and literally meaning something like "of years [past]."

Yorick

Origin

Possibly from Danish Jørg.

york

Origin

Formed as a back-formation from the noun "yorker."

yorker

Origin

Possibly from an old slang phrase about tricking or "pulling Yorkshire on" someone, meaning to deceive them.

Yorkshire

Middle English

From Middle English Yorkschire; equivalent to York (“English city”) + shire. Displaced native cognate Middle English Everwich schire, from Old English Eoforwīcsċīr.

Yorktown

Origin

Named after York (as in York County, Virginia) plus "town."

Yosef

Hebrew

Borrowed from Hebrew יוֹסֵף (yoséf), equivalent to Joseph.

Yosemite

Origin

From a Miwok-related word meaning roughly "those who kill," originally referring to the people who lived in the valley.

Yoshi

Origin

From 義 (Yoshi, common Japanese male given name), and many other spellings. See よし.