Just a quick-quick question while I have a sec...
When and why did yahoo, the exclamation of happiness, become yahoo, a person who's not too bright?
ya·hoo P Pronunciation Key (yäh, y-)
n. pl. ya·hoos
A crude or brutish person. See Synonyms at boor.
[From Yahoo, member of a race of brutes in Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift.]
yahoo·ism n.
so, it was a brute before it was a cheer?
Swift did indeed coin the word; OED comments Freq. in mod. use, a person lacking cultivation or sensibility, a philistine; a lout, a hooligan. for the interjection, they waffle a bit, saying to compare other int. yoho and yoo-hoo and In some cases supposedly characteristic of cowboys, esp. when executing daring feats on horseback, etc.
but take a look at the very first citation for the int. and tell me that the source doesn't suggest a bit more of a connection to the noun:
1976 Beano 3 Jan. 6/2 Yahoo! I've won first prize in a crossword competition run by a lemonade company!
and this: 1976 in V. Randolph Pissing in Snow 85 The woman riding behind an Indian, who yells ‘Yahoo’ when she grabs the saddle horn to mount and dismount.
YAHOO! INC.: Do you yahoo?
THE VICAR: Certainly not in mixed company!
YAHOO! INC.: Do you yahoo?
THE VICAR: Certainly not in mixed company!
Not a vicarious pleasure, I take it?
>>Not a vicarious pleasure, I take it?<<
Et tu, Betse?
;-)
Heh®
Somebody hadda do it.
This surprises me. I don't know why, but I had thought the noun definition came after the interjection definition.
>>noun followed<<
That's what I thought too.
Actually, the expression of elation came second. If you remember Superman comic books, Clark Kent's boss, Perry White, was given to exclaming "Great Jehoshaphat!"
Yahoo is Swift's corruption of Jehu, a king of Israel, the son of Jehoshaphat.
2 Kings 9:20 And the watchman told, saying, He came even unto them, and cometh not again: and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehu
Hurray comes from hurrah, which comes from huzzah, which apparently comes from the middle English hisse, which means "hoist"! Snardles, there are a lot of meaningless sounds used as expletives, aren't there?
-----
Words fail me. (Turnabout is fair play.)
>>>Yahoo is Swift's corruption of Jehu, a king of Israel, the son of Jehoshaphat.
Can you explain that deaconb? I don't see why that would be.
J=Y (as in Jehova/Yaweh)
[/did I interrupt?]
>>>Yahoo is Swift's corruption of Jehu, a king of Israel, the son of Jehoshaphat.
Can you explain that deaconb? I don't see why that would be.
J=Y (as in Jehova/Yaweh)
[/did I interrupt?]
No, no, not at all Insel. I can grasp what he's saying, I just don't understand why the leap was made to say that this is what Swift did.
Why would we assume that Swift corrupted the name Jehu to create yahoo?
It sound like one of those explanations that people use when they try to explain a word by saying it used to be an acronym for something, but you find it really wasn't.
Was Swift well-known for flipping through the bible to find words to corrupt and invent meanings for? Maybe he was, I don't know, I don't read Swift.
Maybe it is my perverse need to, (arrgh, what's the word in English for "décortiquer"?) ... need to sort things out until it makes sense in my mind.
This one doesn't seem to make sense, so I asked.
According to google, décortiquer translates "to peel". Maybe you mean to scrutinize, to parse...?
As to your actual question, all I can say is it's good.
looking at the scriture quote, and thinking about bel's question, were "mad drivers' or hurried, inconsiderate, or hurried scatter-brains called or likened to Jahu? (and this is perhaps why Swift made a race in one of the lands Gulliver 'travelled" to Yahoo's?
we still say "he has the patience of Job" --were careless or hasty people likened to Jaho? (he dashed about like Jaho?) is this an expression that has simple fallen from use? --or one that was transformed by Gullivers travels from Jaho to Yahoo?
there are still, seen in print, reference to farthings. (a coin i remember, but most of the world doesn't)
and sou--(an old low value coin of France) is still used in crossword puzzles, even if "i don't give a sou!" is pretty rare.
Kids in US schools still learn about the MAINE--(and i think of MAINE first when presented with Remember the_______--though the more common answer is Alamo
but very few (how sad) know who to remember when The Rueben James is mentioned. things fall from collective memory.
> arrgh, what's the word in English for "décortiquer"?
grok?
(and ain't International Speak Like a Pirate Day coming up?)
Good catch, eta! It's September 19:
http://www.talklikeapirate.com/
décortiquer / peel
When you décortique something, you make a complete examination, or minute analysis, of it. You take it apart entirely - peel away all the layers, so to speak - and lay everything out so that it becomes understandable.
So "peel" might be a good translation but I think if you used peel in English, you'd have to elaborate. People'd look at you funny if you said, "I have to peel that sentence structure."
Well, to be honest, most people look at you funny if you said, "I have to analyse that sentence structure" too, since grammar-geeks are somewhat misunderstood bunch, but you know what I mean.
... since grammar-geeks are somewhat misunderstood bunch
Bless you, Bel, for understanding.
> décortiquer / peel
dissect?
Quick definitions (dissect)
verb: cut open or cut apart (Example: "Dissect the bodies for analysis")
verb: make a mathematical, chemical, or grammatical analysis of; break down into components or essential features
>>peel away the layers<<
"Peeling the onion" works, though you might have to add "layer by layer." This is said, among other things, of studying Aritstotle's "Metaphysics," where there's only peel and no substance.
Note to FS: I think even descriptivists analyse the grammar of sentences.
Do you think there is an element of "figuring something out" with the word dissect?
I've never used it in that context, but that doesn't mean it isn't by others.
Ja, you can dissect an idea: take it apart, examine it closely.
Hmm. Well, there you go. You learn something new everyday. Next time it is à propos, I'll try to use it.
>"figuring something out"
yes; M-W gives to analyze and interpret minutely as a second meaning.
and I'd thunk it were a tribe of religious Welshmen
> tribe of religious Welshmen
that's what you picked, eh?
I applaud you to the max in that one...
There's a spice, cardamom I think, that is usually sold as "decorticated". I believe it means that the husk is removed so that the seeds are available for use.
Oh, crap, now I've gone and turned it into a food thread...
Bad vanguard, bad, bad vanguard
The three definitions of décortiquer in French are:
1. Verb: to remove the husk, carapace, shell, envelope from something
2. Verbe figuré (I don’t know if there is an English equivalent to this) It means “figure of speech verb”: to make a complete examination, or minute analysis, of it.
3. Verb: to remove the cerebral cortex from a lab animal.
So your decorticated spice falls neatly into this category.
The fourth definition of décortiquer is:
4. To remove all of the brain matter capable of higher thought before entry into public office.
Is décortiquer related to décor, then, which also has to do with surfaces?