Friday, November 23, 2012

Yahoo

Ya-hoo ()

noun
1. a boorish crass or stupid person.
Believe it or not there's only one yahoo in the picture to the right because one of those men respects women, loves his mom, and gives back to his community.*

Synonyms: addlebrain, ass, blockhead, blunderer, bonehead, cretin, dimwit, dork, dumbbell, dunce, fool, idiot, ignoramus, imbecile, jerk, kook,  misologist, moron, muttonhead, nincompoop, ninny, nitwit, out to lunch, pinhead, simpleton, stupid, tomfool, twit.**

2. a probably mythical creature resembling a big hairy man, said to haunt eastern Australia.
Said one mate to another: "Is that a sasquatch?" And his mate replied: "No! It's a yahoo!"

Synonyms: large monster, sasquatch, yeti.

*Hint: it's NOT the younger one.
**Many expletives could be included here, but I assume most of my readers know those words.
***We know exactly how old "yahoo" is because its debut in print also marked its entrance into the English language as a whole. "Yahoo" began life as a made-up word invented by Jonathan Swift in his book Gulliver's Travels, which was published in 1726. The Yahoos were a race of brutes, with the form and vices of humans, encountered by Gulliver in his fourth and final voyage. They represented Swift's view of mankind at its lowest. It is not surprising, then, that "yahoo" came to be applied to any actual human who was particularly unpleasant or unintelligent. Yahoos were controlled by the intelligent and virtuous Houyhnhnms, a word which apparently did not catch people's fancy as "yahoo" did.

No comments:

Post a Comment