YOLO

See also: yolo, Yolo, and Y.O.L.O.

English

Alternative forms

yolo, Y.O.L.O.

Etymology

The phrase (not the acronym) "you only live once" dates to the 19th century according to research by Katherine Martin, head of U.S. Dictionaries at Oxford University Press.^[1] It saw a steady increase of usage from 1940 to 2000.^[1] Ben Zimmer, lexicographer, found the earliest usage of the acronym from 1993, in a trademark filed for YOLO gear with "you only live once" in small lettering. ^[1] The acronym was popularized around 2011 by Canadian rapper Drake.^[1]^[2]

YOLO was entered into the Oxford English Dictionary as a word on September 12, 2016.^[3]

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): /ˈjəʊləʊ/
(US) IPA^(key): /ˈjoʊloʊ/
Audio (General Australian): (file)
Rhymes: -əʊləʊ

Phrase

YOLO

(slang) Acronym of you only live once, i.e. expressing the view that one should make the most of the present moment.
Making this cake mix eleven years past the expiration date, because YOLO!
- 2014, Sam Jones, yolo, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 132:
  “Well, it's too late to turn back now, Brandon,” Ana said. “And anyway… YOLO, right?” Brandon looked like he was about to explode, but finally he rubbed his eyes and nodded. “Yeah. YOLO.”
- 2021 March 24, Charlie Warzel, quoting James Young, “What Are You Paying for When You Buy a GIF for $25,000?”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN, archived from the original on 24 March 2021:
  “It made me come to this conclusion of, I don’t know, YOLO, let me just try this,” he said.
- 2021 April 21, Kevin Roose, “Welcome to the YOLO Economy”, in The New York Times‎^[3], →ISSN, archived from the original on 21 April 2021:
  Individual YOLO decisions can be chalked up to many factors: cabin fever, low interest rates, the emergence of new get-rich-quick schemes like NFTs and meme stocks.

Synonyms

you only go around once

Translations

you only live once

Dutch: yolo (nl), je leeft maar één keer
Finnish: kerran sitä vain eletään
French: on ne vit qu’une fois (fr), on n’a qu’une vie
Galician: só se vive unha vez
German: YOLO (de)
Hungarian: Egyszer élünk!
Japanese: 一度きり (ichido kiri)
Polish: Raz się żyje!, Raz kozie śmierć!
Spanish: solo vives una vez, solo se vive una vez
Swedish: man lever bara en gång

Verb

YOLO (third-person singular simple present YOLOs, present participle YOLOing, simple past and past participle YOLOed)

To make the most of the present moment.
- 2026 March 28, John Foley, quoting Dario Amodei, “Can Big Tech profit from AI spree?”, in FT Weekend, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 7:
  Dario Amodei […] has cautioned that if the real numbers go off course, big spenders could face bankruptcy as a result of “Yolo-ing” on capital expenditure, a reference to some of his peers' you-only-live-once exuberance.

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 Alyssa Bereznak (5 February 2013), “An Oral History of YOLO, the Word That Lived Too Long”, in Vanity Fair
^ “The Motto”, in Take Care, performed by Drake, 2011: “Now she want a photo, you already know, though / You only live once: that's the motto, nigga, YOLO”
^ “Moobs and YOLO among new words in Oxford English Dictionary”, in BBC News‎^[1], 12 September 2016

Anagrams

Looy

[vf-1] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 Alyssa Bereznak (5 February 2013), “An Oral History of YOLO, the Word That Lived Too Long”, in Vanity Fair

[2] “The Motto”, in Take Care, performed by Drake, 2011: “Now she want a photo, you already know, though / You only live once: that's the motto, nigga, YOLO”

[3] “Moobs and YOLO among new words in Oxford English Dictionary”, in BBC News‎^[1], 12 September 2016

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