yada yada yada
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Probably influenced by (or perhaps an alteration of) yatter[1] or yatata; perhaps onomatopoeic of blather;[2] or perhaps derived from the Norwegian expression jada, jada which has a similar pronunciation and interpretation. Sometimes popularly attributed to Yiddish, but this is dismissed by etymologists.
"Yatter, yatter" is British (specifically Scots) English for "continuous chatter, rambling and persistent talk". S. R. Crockett, The Men of the Moss-Hags (1895) xxix: "The woman's yatter, yatter easily vexed me." [3] Yadder is a Cumberland word meaning "to talk incessantly; to chatter". [4]
Various variant forms appear in the US 1940s–60s; for example, the 1947 American musical Allegro by Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers contains a song called “Yatata, Yatata, Yatata,” about cocktail party chatter; see talk page for additional citations.
The phrase "yadda yadda" was first popularized by the comedian Lenny Bruce in his standup bit "Father Flotsky's Triumph," the closing track on his 1961 album "Lenny Bruce - American." It gained renewed popularity in the US in the late 1990s on the television show Seinfeld, where it appears as a catchphrase, initially in Season 8, Episode 19, entitled “The Yada Yada”, originally aired on April 24, 1997, which centers on the phrase (in the duplicative “yada yada” form).[5]
Phrase[edit]
- And so on; and so forth.
- 1981 January 5, The Washington Post, page B1:
- I’m talking country codes, asbestos firewalls, yada yada yada.
- (less commonly) Blah blah blah.
Usage notes[edit]
- Normally used mid-sentence:
- They’re no good, the lot of them—Yaddeyahdah—They're animals! — Lenny Bruce
- Can be preceded by and in the first sense.
Synonyms[edit]
- (and so on): and so forth, and so on, etc., and what have you, and whatnot
Translations[edit]
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
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References[edit]
- ^ “yada yada, int. & n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
- ^ “yada yada”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
- ^ “yatter, v.1, n.1”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.
- ^ Joseph Wright, editor (1905), “YADDER, v.”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volumes VI (T–Z, Supplement, Bibliography and Grammar), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 562, column 1.
- ^ “On this date, Seinfeld made “Yada Yada Yada” a catchphrase (but didn’t coin it)”, in This Day in Quotes[1], 2010 April 24, archived from the original on 2010-07-11
