Etymologically
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yell

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Pronunciation

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

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)