yell

Pronunciation

• IPA: /jɛl/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English yellen, inherited from Old English ġiellan (West Saxon, Mercian ġellan),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *gellaną, cognate with Dutch gillen, Old High German gellan (modern gellen) and Old Norse gjalla (“to resound”),^[2][3][4] and more distantly with Old English galan (“to sing”), seen in nightingale,^[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *gʰel- (“to call”).^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English, before 1000, used of certain birds and beasts in the OED;^[5][2] of a person, to cry out loud, before 1225.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The transitive sense, to utter with a yell, was in Old English.^[3] Of loud singing or chanting it is from 1387.^[5] The noun, a sharp loud outcry, is from about 1375, at first in Scots.^[2][3][5] A cheer chanted in unison, as at American colleges, is from the 19th century,^[5][6] and in slang a yell is something very funny, a scream, from 1926.^[5]

Timeline

• before 1000 – ġiellan.^[2][5]
• c. 1375 – a yell (noun, Scots).^[2]
• 1387 – loud singing.^[5]
• 1926 – a scream, a joke (slang).^[5]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To shout loudly, as in pain, anger, fear or excitement.

Noun

1. A loud, sharp cry or shout.
2. (US) A rhythmic cheer chanted by a group.

Word family

• yeller
• outyell
• rebel yell

Related words

• gale
• yelp
• nightingale

Usage notes

In Lancashire dialect yell was a form of awl,^[7] and in Lothian Scots it meant an echo.^[7]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b 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)