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171 entries found
Yiddish (n.)
1875, from Yiddish yidish, from Middle High German jüdisch "Jewish" (in phrase jüdisch deutsch "Jewish-German"), from jude "Jew," from Old High German judo, from Latin Iudaeus (see Jew). The English word has been re-borrowed in German as jiddisch. As an adjective from 1886. Related: Yiddishism.
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yield (v.)
Old English gieldan (West Saxon), geldan (Anglian) "to pay, pay for; reward, render; worship, serve, sacrifice to" (class III strong verb; past tense geald, past participle golden), from Proto-Germanic *geldan "pay" (source also of Old Saxon geldan "to be worth," Old Norse gjaldo "to repay, return," Middle Dutch ghelden, Dutch gelden "to cost, be worth, concern," Old High German geltan, German gelten "to be worth," Gothic fra-gildan "to repay, requite"). This is from PIE *gheldh- "to pay," a root found only in Balto-Slavic and Germanic (and Old Church Slavonic žledo, Lithuanian geliuoti might be Germanic loan-words).

"[T]he only generally surviving senses on the Continent are 'to be worth; to be valid, to concern, apply to,' which are not represented at all in the English word" [OED]; sense development in English comes via use of this word to translate Latin reddere, French rendre. Sense of "give in return for labor or capital invested" is from early 14c. Intransitive sense of "give oneself up, submit, surrender (to a foe)" is from c. 1300. Related to Middle Low German and Middle Dutch gelt, Dutch geld, German Geld "money." Related: Yielded; yielding.
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yield (n.)
Old English gield "payment, sum of money; service, offering, worship;" from the source of yield (v.). Extended sense of "production" (as of crops) is first attested mid-15c. Earliest English sense survives in financial "yield from investments."
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yielding (adj.)
late 14c., "generous in rewarding," present-participle adjective from yield (v.). From 1660s as "giving way to physical force."
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yikes 
exclamation of alarm or surprise, by 1953; perhaps from yoicks, a call in fox-hunting, attested from c. 1770. Yike "a fight" is slang attested from 1940, of uncertain connection.
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yin (n.)
feminine or negative principle in Chinese philosophy, 1670s, from Chinese (Mandarin) yin, said to mean "female, night, lunar," or "shade, feminine, the moon." Compare yang. Yin-yang is from 1850.
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yins (pron.)
"you people, you-all," contracted from U.S. dialectal you-uns, for you-ones (see you, also see y'all); first noted 1810 in Ohio. Also yinz; now considered a localism in Pittsburgh, Pa.
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yip (v.)
1891, possibly from dialectal yip "to cheep like a bird" (early 19c.), from Middle English yippen (mid-15c.), of imitative origin. As a noun from 1896.
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yippee (interj.)

interjection of pleasure, exultation, etc., by 1902; perhaps an extension and modification of hip (interj.).

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Yippie 

1968, acronym from fictitious "Youth International Party," modeled on hippie.

On December 31, 1967, Abbie [Hoffman], Jerry [Rubin], Paul Krassner, Dick Gregory, and friends decided to pronounce themselves the Yippies. (The name came first, then the acronym that would satisfy literal-minded reporters: Youth International Party.) [Todd Gitlin, "The Sixties," 1987, p.235]
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