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yo

intj
/jəʊ/UK/joʊ/US/jɒ/

Etymology

As a greeting first attested in 1859, attested first as a cry of sailors and huntsmen (first attested in the 1400s; compare e.g. huzzah, giddyup). Originally from Middle English yo, io, ȝo, yeo, yaw, variant forms of ya, ye (“yes, yea”), from Old English ġēa (“yes, yea”), from Proto-Germanic *ja (“yes, thus, so”); or perhaps from Old English ēow (“Wo!, Alas!”, interjection). Compare Danish, Swedish, German, Norwegian jo (“yes (flexible meaning)”), Dutch jow (“hi, hey”) and Dutch jo (“hi, hey”). More at yea, ow, ew. Modern popularity apparently dates from the early 20th century in Philadelphia, PA; amongst the Italian Community there, where io, with (as opposed to in standard Italian language) the stress on the ultima, was a common salutatory response among residents, particularly young males. This usage was apparently reinforced by the aforesaid English terms. It has been claimed to have been a common response at roll calls during World War 2 (see definition 4), and then most intensely attested in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; it thence spread globally from American dominance of pop culture post-WWII.

  1. inherited from ēow
  2. inherited from *ja✻
  3. inherited from ġēa
  4. inherited from yo, io, ȝo, yeo, yaw

Definitions

  1. A greeting similar to hi.

    • Yo Paulie! How's it going?

  2. An interjection similar to hey.

    • Yo, check this out!
    • Check this out, yo!

  3. An expression of surprise or excitement.

    • Yo, that's crazy, but I don't remember asking.
    • I have quickly acclimated myself to the standard form of greeting on campus: "Oh hey what’s your name? … Yeah, nice to meet you, what're you studying? … Yo that’s sick!" A script to recite, nearly verbatim, 10 times a day or more.
  4. ›+ 13 more definitions

    1. Present! Here!

      • Sergeant: Smith? Private Smith: Yo!

    2. Emphatic conclusion to a statement.

      • JESSE: That is messed up, yo.

    3. Pronunciation spelling of your.

      • Yo sandwich has only bacon in it. Want some ketchup on that?

    4. Generic third-person singular pronoun (primarily used in place of he and she).

      • Is dat yo mama? What's yo doin' in here??
      • I've lost ma pet turtle! But I think yo ain't far from here… You seen yo?
      • Yo was tuckin' in his shirt!

    5. Abbreviation of year(s) old.

    6. Initialism of yarn over.

    7. The name of the letter Ё/ё in Cyrillic alphabets.

    8. Clipping of yoleven.

    9. Obsolete form of yue, a traditional Chinese unit of volume.

    10. Alternative form of YO

    11. Abbreviation of years old.

    12. Initialism of the Special Region of Yogyakarta

      Initialism of the Special Region of Yogyakarta: a province of Indonesia.

    13. Abbreviation of yarnover.

The neighborhood

Derived

yo-ho, yo-ho-ho

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for yo. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA