Y-Y, insep. suffix (Manchester Grammar School).—Mathy = mathematics; chemmy = chemistry; gymmy = gymnastics; etc.
Yack, subs. (thieves').—A watch.
To church (or christen) a
yack = to change the case, or
substitute a fictitious inscription,
in order to prevent identification.
1851-61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., ii. 57. At last he was bowled out in the very act of nailing a yack.
1857. Ducange Anglicus, Vulg. Tongue, 38. He told me as Bill had flimped a yack.
1868. Doran, Saints and Sinners, II. 290. The [thieves] church their yacks when they transpose the works of stolen watches to prevent identification.
Yaff, verb (colloquial).—To talk
pertly: also yaffle. [Properly
yaff = to bark or yelp.]
Yaffle, subs. (provincial).—An
armful.
Verb (Old Cant).—1. To eat (Halliwell).
2. (colloquial).—To snatch, to pilfer, to take illicitly.
3. See Yaff.
Yahoo, subs. (common).—A
generic reproach: spec. a rough,
brutal, uncouth character. In
America = a back-country lout,
a greenhorn (Bartlett). [A
name given by Swift in his Gulliver's
Travels (1726) to a race of
brutes, described as having human
forms and vicious and degraded
propensities. They were subject
to the Houyhnhnms, or horses
endowed with human reason.]
As adj. = boorish, loutish, uncouth.
1772. Graves, Spiritual Quixote, iv. x. To see a noble creature start and tremble at the passionate exclamation of a mere yahoo of a stable-boy . . . equally excites my pity and my indignation.
d.1790. Warton, Newmarket, 170 That hated animal, a Yahoo squire.
1861. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, lv. 'And what sort of fellow is he?' said Lord Saltire; 'a Yahoo, I suppose?' 'Not at all; he is a capital fellow, a perfect gentleman.'
1900. Savage, Brought to Bay, v. You frontier yahoos know nothing but herding cattle.
Yallow. See Yellow.
Yam, subs. (nautical).—Food;
grub (q.v.). As verb = to eat.
Yank, subs. (American).—1. A
Yankee (q.v.): 'an abbreviation
universally applied by the Confederates
to the soldiers of the
Union armies' (Bartlett).
