Originally Posted By: Faldage
 Originally Posted By: Hydra
I've always wondered if Swift named his savages after an existing exclamation, or if someone took the exclamation from Swift. Undoubtably the former.


FWIW, the B&M OED lists Swift as the earliest citation and credits him with coining it.


The online OED says of the interjection that it is
"[Prob. echoic. Cf. YAHOO n.]" (e.a.)

and credits Swift with the noun.