yowl

Etymology

Yowl came into English from Middle English youlen or goulen, which developed from Old Norse gaula (“to low, bellow, howl, scream”). It is related to Icelandic gaula (“to yell, howl, roar”), Faroese geyla (“to bawl, squall, shout, yell, bellow”), Norwegian gaule (“to roar, howl, whine, weep noisily”), dialectal Swedish gjöla, Scots gowl (“to howl, yell, roar”) and Shetlandic Scots gjol. The initial y- may have been influenced by Middle English yollen or yellen (“to yell”).