yahoo

See also: Yahoo and Yahoo!

English

Etymology 1

From Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, where Yahoo is the name of a race of brutes.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈjɑːhuː/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːhu

Noun

yahoo (plural yahoos)

1. (derogatory) A rough, coarse, loud or uncouth individual.
2. (cryptozoology) A humanoid cryptid said to exist in parts of eastern Australia, and also reported in the Bahamas.
   • 1835, James Holman, Travels, quoted by Malcolm Smith, Bunyips and Bigfoots (Millennium Books, 1996, →ISBN), who notes that the Australian sense almost certainly derives from Gulliver's Travels, despite Holman's report

     The natives are greatly terrrified by the sight of a person in a mask calling him "devil" or Yah-hoo, which signifies evil spirit.

   • 1985, Michael Raynal, Yahoos in the Bahamas: Cryptozoology, volume 4:

Synonyms

• (a rough, coarse, or uncouth person): yokel, lout

Derived terms

• Netanyahoo

Translations

rough person

• German: Rüpel (de) m, Rohling (de) m

Etymology 2

Expressive.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jəˈhuː/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uː

Interjection

yahoo

1. An exclamation of joy or enjoyment.
   • 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 521:

     "Yahoooooo! Give her some stick!"

2. A battle cry.

Translations

exlamation of joy

• Finnish: hihhei
• German: juhu (de)

Verb

yahoo (third-person singular simple present yahoos, present participle yahooing, simple past and past participle yahooed)

1. (transitive, intransitive, informal) To give a cry of yahoo.

Etymology 3

From Yahoo!.

Alternative forms

• Yahoo

Verb

yahoo (third-person singular simple present yahoos, present participle yahooing, simple past and past participle yahooed)

1. (Internet, informal, transitive, intransitive) To search using the Yahoo! search engine.
   • 2007, Tell:

     Ah! You mean you have been 'yahooing'? I'm dead!

   • 2008, Frederick Thomas, Buddha's Bones, Buddha's Bones, →ISBN, page 46:

     I searched, Yahooed, Googled and everything else I could.

   • 2017, Rajendra Pillai, Unearthed: Discover Life as God's Masterpiece, New Hope Publishers, →ISBN:

     In other words, none of our googling and yahooing is private (you knew that, right ?).

Anagrams

• ooyah