Meaning of the word "yayhoo"??

**caseysmom** · 01-29-2005, 11:56 PM

Okay first let me say that I am 43 so that explains why I have said the work yayhoo a time or two to describe a bad driver. My friend from tennessee says not to use that word because it is derogatory against people from tennessee? Has anyone ever heard this before? I thought it was another word for idiot...idiot regardless of race, creed, color or state of origin????Help....

**Lilith Cherry** · 01-30-2005, 02:34 AM

In Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, a yahoo is a vile and savage creature, filthy and with unpleasant habits, resembling human beings far too closely for the liking of Lemuel Gulliver, who finds the calm and rational society of the Houyhnhnms far preferable.

I don't want to meet any , do you?

**lizbud** · 01-30-2005, 11:24 AM

Merriam-Webster lists this meaning.......

Main Entry: ya·hoo
Pronunciation: 'yA-(")hü, 'yä-
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural yahoos
1 capitalized : a member of a race of brutes in Swift's Gulliver's Travels who have the form and all the vices of humans

2 : a boorish, crass, or stupid person
- ya·hoo·ism /-"i-z&m/ noun

I've heard & used the word myself.It has nothing to do with
where a person comes from.

**caseysmom** · 01-30-2005, 01:44 PM

Thanks thats what I thought...but I wasn't sure sometimes the origins of words or the connotations you never know.

**caseysmom** · 01-31-2005, 01:52 PM

I am bumping this because it is really making me mad...I think she was trying to make me feel bad or something.

**Lilith Cherry** · 01-31-2005, 02:28 PM

She must have been. I'm sure it has nothing to do with people from Tennessee! Johnathan Swift invented the word for his book "Gulliver's Travels" Neither Swift nor Gulliver ever visited Tennessee!

**AmberLee** · 01-31-2005, 07:36 PM

??? I believe the spelling of the word used to indicate lousy drivers is Jehu (pronounced yayhoo around here), from one of the 5 Jehus in the Old Testament. Specifically, the one that drove his chariot so wildly that he rammed a tree and killed himself.

I googled Jehu, and got this (among many, many listings):

Jehu (jê´hy¡)
Ninth century B.C.
Israeli king who, according to the Old Testament, slew Ahab, Jezebel, and the prophets of Baal. He is proverbially known for his swift chariot driving.

Jehu (noun)

driver: charioteer, coachman, whip, Jehu

I've no idea where someone would associate this with a Tennessee citizen, unless they were misinformed...