yawn

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English yanen, an alteration of yonen and yenen,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English ginian, also gionian and geonian (“to gape, open the mouth wide”),^[5][6][3][7] from Proto-Germanic *ginōną.^[6][3] The OED finds the vowel of the modern form hard to explain, since the regular outcome of the Old English and early Middle English forms would have been quite different: Middle English yane probably arose through contact with the synonymous ganen, from gānian, and the 16th-century spelling yawn, first recorded in 1549, may be a local development of that form or of yone.^[5][3][4] Cognates include Old Saxon ginōn, Middle Dutch ghēnen, Old High German ginēn and geinōn (modern German gähnen), and Old Norse gína.^[3][5][8] Outside Germanic it is related to Latin hiō (“to gape, yawn”), Ancient Greek χαίνω (khaínō, “to gape”) and Lithuanian žióti, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeyh₁- (“to yawn, gape”);^[3][8][9][6] Ayto adds that gap and gape probably come from an extension of the same root.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To open the mouth wide, to gape, and to lie wide open like a chasm: both in Old English, the first in the Corpus Glossary and the second in Wærferth's translation of Gregory's Dialogues.^[5] Barnhart dates the Old English verb to before 830.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Old English and early Middle English verb meant opening the mouth wide on purpose, especially to swallow something, a sense obsolete by 1603.^[5][11] The involuntary yawn from drowsiness or boredom is recorded only from the mid 15th century.^[5][6][3] Middle English also used yawn after (or yawn for) in the sense of longing to obtain something (before 1250 to 1593).^[5] The noun followed in 1602, first for a gaping opening or chasm, in Marston's Antonio's Revenge,^[5][3] then for the act of yawning (1697, 1707),^[5] and in colloquial use from 1889 for something boring.^[5][6] Green's Dictionary of Slang has an Australian example of this sense from 1885.^[12] In Yorkshire and Cheshire dialect yawn also meant to howl like a dog or to cry, and in Herefordshire to stare.^[13]

Timeline

• Old English – to open the mouth wide, gape; to lie wide open.^[5]
• before 1250 – yawn after, to long for (obsolete by 1593).^[5]
• 1382 – transitive, to cause to open wide.^[5]
• 1450–80 – to yawn from drowsiness or fatigue.^[5][3]
• 1549 – the spelling yawn.^[3]
• 1602 – noun, a gaping opening, a chasm.^[5][3]
• 1707 – noun, an involuntary yawn.^[5]
• 1719 – transitive, to say with a yawn.^[5]
• 1889 – noun, something boring.^[5][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To open the mouth wide and breathe in deeply without meaning to, from tiredness or boredom.^[14][4][5]
2. To say something while yawning: “Is it morning already?” he yawned.^[14][5]
3. To be wide open, like a chasm or gulf: A deep crevasse yawned in front of the climbers.^[14][4][5]

Noun

1. An act of yawning.^[14][4][5]
2. (informal) Something tedious or boring.^[4][5][12]
3. A wide opening or gap.^[4][5]

Word family

• yawner
• yawnful
• yawny

Related words

• gape
• gap
• chasm
• hiatus
• gane

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins