Ë?yä-
Richard SandomirMark Goodman
Did you know?
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. On his fourth and final voyage of the book, Lemuel Gulliver is marooned on an island that is the home of the Houyhnhnms, a species of intelligent, civilized horses who share their land with and rule over the Yahoos, a species of brutes with the form and vices of humans. These Yahoos represented Swift's view of humankind at its lowest. It is not surprising, then, that yahoo came to be applied to any actual human who was particularly unpleasant or unintelligent.
Synonyms
Noun
- airhead
- birdbrain
- blockhead
- bonehead
- bubblehead
- chowderhead
- chucklehead
- clodpoll
- clodpole
- clot [British]
- cluck
- clunk
- cretin
- cuddy [British dialect]
- cuddie
- deadhead
- dim bulb [slang]
- dimwit
- dip
- dodo
- dolt
- donkey
- doofus [slang]
- dope
- dork [slang]
- dullard
- dum-dum
- dumbbell
- dumbhead
- dummkopf
- dummy
- dunce
- dunderhead
- fathead
- gander
- golem
- goof
- goon
- half-wit
- hammerhead
- hardhead
- idiot
- ignoramus
- imbecile
- jackass
- know-nothing
- knucklehead
- lamebrain
- loggerhead [chiefly dialect]
- loon
- lump
- lunkhead
- meathead
- mome [archaic]
- moron
- mug [chiefly British]
- mutt
- natural
- nimrod [slang]
- nincompoop
- ninny
- ninnyhammer
- nit [chiefly British]
- nitwit
- noddy
- noodle
- numskull
- numbskull
- oaf
- pinhead
- prat [British]
- ratbag [chiefly Australian]
- saphead
- schlub [slang]
- shlub
- schnook [slang]
- simpleton
- stock
- stupe
- stupid
- thickhead
- turkey
- woodenhead
- yo-yo
Interjection
Examples of yahoo in a Sentence
Matthew Cappucci, Washington Post, 21 July 2024
Once these yahoos were kicked out of the building, Congress calmly affirmed Mr. Biden’s election.
—Tom McClintock, WSJ, 12 Jan. 2024
Is there something more sinister in the making or just luck of the draw by what many suspect are ultra-right-wing yahoos who hide in the shadows?
—Charles Selle, Chicago Tribune, 6 Sep. 2023
Would a truly great actor have to succumb to kick-ass yahoo entertainments?
—Armond White, National Review, 1 Sep. 2023
On the plus side, this augured fewer yahoos in powerboats to contend with as the Hudson narrowed, beyond Haverstraw.
—Ben McGrath, The New Yorker, 3 July 2024
The increasing number of yahoos who treat expressway driving like a real-life video game, tailgating, speeding, weaving in and out and periodically firing guns.
—Bill McGraw, Detroit Free Press, 26 Mar. 2023
And the episode demonstrates the downsides of priced-to-move legal advice in the opening scene, which follows two meth-addled yahoos who celebrate Saul’s introductory bargain rate by launching into a multiday bender.
—David Segal, New York Times, 24 Feb. 2020
Saul came to function as an exterminator of the kind of refined sensibility that separated the sophisticates from the yahoos in haut-bourgeois twentieth-century America.
—Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2020
Articles Related to yahoo
Dictionary Entries Near yahoo
Cite this Entry
“Yahoo.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/yahoo. Accessed 24 Jan. 2025.
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