| 释义 |
▪ I. yahoo, n.|jɑːˈhuː|
1. A name invented by Swift in Gulliver's Travels for an imaginary race of brutes having the form of men; hence transf. and allusively, a human being of a degraded or bestial type. (Cf. houyhnhnm.) Freq. in mod. use, a person lacking cultivation or sensibility, a philistine; a lout, a hooligan.
1726Swift Gulliver iv. ii, The Fore-feet of the Yahoo differed from my Hands in nothing else, but the Length of the Nails, the Coarseness and Brownness of the Palms, and the Hairiness on the Backs. 1764Reid Inquiry i. §5. 28 At the expence of disgracing reason and human nature, and making mankind yahoos. 1772Graves Spir. Quix. iv. x, To see a noble creature start..at the passionate exclamation of a mere Yahoo of a stable-boy. 1829Macaulay Mill on Govt. Misc. Writ. (1868) 143/1 Because civilised men, pursuing their own happiness in a social state, are not Yahoos fighting for carrion. 1861H. Kingsley Ravenshoe lv, ‘And what sort of fellow is he?..a Yahoo, I suppose?’ ‘Not at all; he is..a perfect gentleman.’ 1904Ashbee Last Rec. Cotswold Community p. xxiii, To have..the pleasant valleys of Saintbury and Weston tramped by armed bands of Birmingham yahoos. 1912J. Sandilands Western Canad. Dict. & Phrase-Bk., Yahoo, a lout from the back-country, an ignoramus, a know-nothing. 1914‘I. Hay’ Lighter Side School Life iii. 83 You must not behave like a yahoo in my mathematical set. 1943J. Lees-Milne Ancestral Voices (1975) 200, I took the young yahoo..to the station. 1968Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 21 May 6/4 A Brisbane boat owner has complained that ‘young yahoos’ are stripping cars left at bayside boat ramps. 1977New Yorker 20 June 56/2 Sarge Waller—who is, among other things, a professional riverman—later commented on Cook and Ulvi's journey and described them as ‘yahoos’.
attrib.1726Swift Gulliver iv. iv, I told him, we had great Numbers [of Houyhnhnms]..[that] Yahoo-Servants were employed to rub their Skins smooth [etc.]. 1735Ibid., Let. to Sympson, I must..confess, that..some Corruptions of my Yahoo Nature have revived in me. 1751Warton Newmarket 192 That hated animal, a Yahoo-Squire. 1888F. Harrison in Fortn. Rev. Nov. 681 Pessimist pictures of human destiny and Ya-hoo theories of human life.
2. = wild man 2.
c1810–20Handbill, During the Fair... Two surprising large Yohoes; or, Wild Men of the Woods, being the most Wonderful of the kind ever Exhibited. 1814Lincoln, Rutland & Stamford Mercury 22 Apr. 3/5 Just arrived, and to be seen in a commodious booth, in the Crown and Anchor Yard, Lincoln... The Great Yahoo, or Wild Man of the Woods.
3. Austral. [Perh. a different word.] A probably mythical creature resembling a big hairy man, said to haunt eastern Australia. Cf. yowie2.
1842in G. C. Joyner Hairy Man South Eastern Austral. (1977) 5 A contested point has long existed among Australian naturalists whether or not such an animal as the Yahoo existed. 1844L. A. Meredith Notes & Sketches N.S.W. x. 95 They have an evil spirit, which causes them great terror, whom they call ‘Yahoo’, or ‘Devil-devil.’ 1876Austral. Town & Country Jrnl. 4 Nov. 729 For many years past it had been believed by the settlers of that wild part of the country, that the Walla Walla scrub was inhabited by a monster called ‘the hairy man of the wood’, or what all the blacks stand so much in dread of—the Yahoo. 1937Mankind II. iv. 91 [J.N., a Kumtangerai, told me that big hairy men lived in the scrub at Nana Glen (North Coast, N.S.W.), and were called by the native Jarrā-wahu.] Ibid., In the Mudgee district..a scrubby place was reputed to be the abode of a ‘Yahu’, and a resident in the Maitland district told me a ‘Yahu’ was reputed to live in thick scrub there. Each said he was a big hairy man.
Hence (nonce-wds.) yaˈhoo v. intr., to behave like a yahoo; yaˈhoodom, the realm of yahoos, yahoos collectively; also, behaviour characteristic of a yahoo; yaˈhooish a., resembling or characteristic of a yahoo; yaˈhooism, style or quality characteristic or suggestive of a yahoo.
1868Yates Rock Ahead iii. v, A dam low-bred lot, *yahooin' all over the place.
1890Kipling Let. in C. Carrington Rudyard Kipling (1955) vii. 162 The grotesque *Yahoodom of nipping pieces off a half-presented foetus and slamming it into the market. 1906Sun (N.Y.) 17 Aug. 4/1 One dictum in a Judge's mouth can..unleash all Yahoodom.
1885Masson Carlyle i. 37 The infrahuman, the *Yahooish, the diabolic.
1862Rossetti in Fraser's Mag. July 70 Those ‘*yahooisms’ are degrading in art. 1901Speaker 5 Jan. 374/1 In the ‘Scotsman’ we have Yahooism militant.
▪ II. yahoo, int.|jɑːˈhuː, jæˈhuː|
[Prob. echoic. Cf. yahoo n.]
An exclamation of excitement, exultation, or delight. Cf. yoho int., yoo-hoo int. (n.).
In some cases supposedly characteristic of cowboys, esp. when executing daring feats on horseback, etc.
1976Beano 3 Jan. 6/2 Yahoo! I've won first prize in a crossword competition run by a lemonade company! 1976in V. Randolph Pissing in Snow 85 The woman riding behind an Indian, who yells ‘Yahoo’ when she grabs the saddle horn to mount and dismount. 1986More (N.Z.) Feb. 47/3 Isn't it great? Fancy getting 180 bucks a week... Yahoo! 1987Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 23 June 12/3 He had heard a man yell ‘yahoo’ and saw him hanging halfway out the back window of a vehicle travelling down the steep hill. 1989Funny Fortnightly 21 Oct. 7 Yahoo! My plan worked! |