Yee-haw

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Yee-haw [ / ˈjiːhɔ / ] is an interjection commonly used in English , especially in American English . It expresses joy or exuberance, comparable to the German “juhu”, and is particularly known as the stereotypical exclamation of cowboys , for example at rodeo .

Etymology and usage

The etymology of yee-haw is uncertain; William Safire suspects that the word derives from the centuries-old shouts of gee and haw , with which - correspondingly in German hott and hü  - horse-drawn carts were commanded to the left or right. Numerous interjections starting with / j / are documented from the American "Wild West" or the cultural representation of it, for example in Wild West novels and films , for example yippy-aye-ay , yowee , yea and yo ; a connection with the verb yell , "call, roar", is conceivable. In the collective consciousness until recently the exclamations yippie! and yahoo! anchored as cowboy calls. The use of the two words in this sense has noticeably decreased, which Safire attributes to being displaced by newly emerged meanings: Yippie was (in analogy to hippie) turned into a term of the counterculture of the 1960s, Yahoo today not only leaves Gullivers as before Think travel , but also think of the internet search engine of the same name. So yee-haw sat down ! , whose first document in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) dates back to 1977, as an unencumbered alternative. The OED uses the word yeehaw under the lemma , but Safire recommends a hyphenated spelling.

In internet forums, but also in printed works, there are often different information about the origin of the exclamation. The presumption that interjection imitate onomatopoeic the cries of the donkey , is probably a mix-based because the vocalizations of the donkey in English usually with hee-haw be played . Also, the Rebel Yell , the famous battle cry of the Confederacy in the American Civil War is sometimes with, yee-haw play, but he probably had a much more complex sound structure. Finally, there is an occasional statement that the word is derived from the language of the Seminoles , the native American Indians of Florida. In fact, the Yeehaw Junction settlement, which still exists today, was founded in Florida in 1896 , the place name of which goes back to the seminolic yaya , " wolf ". Nevertheless, there is no etymological connection, the homography is probably not due to corruption but rather by chance, especially since the use and spelling of interjection did not establish itself until the late 20th century.

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