yak

yak¹ the animal

Etymology

The animal is borrowed from Tibetan གཡག (gyag),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the name of the male yak.^[7][8] Barnhart notes that it was taken into English in conventional Roman letters, and suggests a possible connection with Tocharian B yakwe (“horse”).^[9] Etymonline finds the word in French from 1791.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The long-haired wild or domesticated ox of Tibet and central Asia: 1795, in Asiatick Researches.^[2][9][10]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its meaning.^[2][7] Etymonline notes that it covers the domesticated animals as well as the wild one;^[7] the domestic yak is kept for its milk, its soft underfur and as a pack animal, and the wild yak is a rarer animal of the high Tibetan plateau.^[3]

Timeline

• 1795 – the ox of Tibet and central Asia.^[2][9][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large, long-haired ox of Tibet and the high plateaus of central Asia, wild or domesticated, kept for its milk, meat, wool and as a pack animal.^{[10][4][3][2]}

yak² chatter

Etymology

The word for chatter is probably imitative,^{[10][11][12][6][4]} of chattering teeth according to Merriam-Webster,^[10] and Dictionary.com calls it an Americanism of expressive origin.^[13] Etymonline takes it as a variant of yack, probably shortened from yackety-yacking, talk (1947), and compares the Australian slang yacker (“talk, conversation”) (1882).^[7] The sense "laugh" is a variant of yuck, a laugh.^[7][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a verb, to laugh: 1938.^[7] The sense "to talk idly" follows in 1949 or 1950.^[10][7]

Semantic evolution

Green's Dictionary of Slang already has yak-yak for empty talk in 1823,^[14] but the word became common in American slang around 1950: Kerouac wrote in 1949 of a house that yakked at him.^[14] Merriam-Webster dates the verb to 1949 and the noun, persistent or idle chatter, to 1950,^[10] and the spellings yak and yack are used for both.^[10][14] A yak has also been a laugh, often in the plural for fun, since the 1950s.^[14] The pop song Yakety Yak of 1958 helped to spread the reduplicated form.^[7]

Timeline

• 1938 – verb, to laugh.^[7]
• 1949 – verb, to chatter persistently.^[10][14] Etymonline dates it to 1950.^[7]
• 1950 – noun, idle chatter.^[10]
• 1954 – noun, a laugh; in the plural, fun.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (slang) To chatter persistently, often about trivial things: They yakked on the phone for hours.^[10][4][11]

Noun

1. (slang) Persistent, trivial talk; chatter.^[10][4][11]
2. (slang) A laugh; a joke that raises one.^[14]

Word family

• yakker