Yahoo definition
1835: The natives are greatly terrrified by the sight of a person in a mask calling him "devil" or Yah-hoo, which signifies evil spirit. "” James Holman, Travels, 1835 (quoted by Malcolm Smith, above)
1985: Yahoos in the Bahamas "” title of paper by Michael Raynal, Cryptozoology, volume 4, 1985
An example of Yahoo! is the website that includes a search engine, instant messaging, chat groups and e-mail.
An example of yahoo is the race of fictional brutish creatures in Swift's Gulliver's Travels.
An example of Yahoo used as an injection is in the sentence, "Yahoo! I just won first place!" which means "Woohoo! I just won first place!"
Other Word Forms
Noun
Origin of yahoo
- From Yahoo , member of a race of brutes in Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
- Imitative
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
- The Australian sense almost certainly derives from Gulliver's Travels, despite Holman's report (quote below), since the sound "H" does not occur in aboriginal languages, only in words learnt or adopted from Europeans. (Reference: Bunyips and Bigfoots, Malcolm Smith, Millenium Books, 1996, ISBN 1-86429-081-1.)
From Wiktionary
- From Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: the name of a race of brutes.
From Wiktionary
- Coined by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver's Travels.
From Wiktionary
- Yahoo!
From Wiktionary