Word
yahoo
Phoneticsya·hoo
US/ˈjɑˌhu/
UK/jˈæhuː/
Definitions
02a rude person
n. a person who is very loud, rude, or lacks good manners.
n. a crude, coarse, or uncouth individual; originally a member of a race of brutes in Swift's Gulliver's Travels.
“Some yahoo in a sports car nearly ran me off the road this morning.”
“The quiet evening was ruined by a group of yahoos shouting outside the window and knocking over rubbish bins.”
Informal · Literary
Teaching tip
While the literary origin is specific, in modern speech it is a general, slightly old-fashioned insult for a loud or uneducated person.
03to shout joyfully
v. to shout the word 'yahoo' because you are happy.
v. to utter a loud cry of 'yahoo' in excitement or celebration.
“The fans were yahooing in the stands after the home team scored.”
“He spent the afternoon yahooing and cheering as he tested his new jet ski on the lake.”
Informal
Usage
Intransitive verb; describes the act of making the sound.
Etymology
Coined by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver's Travels. According to the Century Dictionary, "[a] made name, prob[ably] meant to suggest disgust".
From the company name Yahoo!; see more on origin there.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Domain
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/yahoo