sb. A name invented by Swift in Gulliver’s Travels for an imaginary race of brutes having the form of men; hence transf. and allusively, a human being of a degraded or bestial type. (Cf. HOUYHNHNM.)
1726. Swift, Gulliver, IV. ii. The Fore-feet of the Yahoo differed from my Hands in nothing else, but the Length of the Nails, the Coarseness and Brownness of the Palms, and the Hairiness on the Backs.
1764. Reid, Inquiry, i. § 5. 28. At the expence of disgracing reason and human nature, and making mankind yahoos.
1772. Graves, Spir. Quix., IV. x. To see a noble creature start … at the passionate exclamation of a mere Yahoo of a stable-boy.
1829. Macaulay, Mill on Govt., Misc. Writ. (1868), 143/1. Because civilised men, pursuing their own happiness in a social state, are not Yahoos fighting for carrion.
1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, lv. ‘And what sort of fellow is he?… a Yahoo, I suppose?’ ‘Not at all; he is … a perfect gentleman.’
1904. Ashbee, Last Rec. Cotswold Community, p. xxiii. To have … the pleasant valleys of Saintbury and Weston tramped by armed bands of Birmingham yahoos was not a thing to be desired.
attrib. 1726. Swift, Gulliver, IV. iv. I told him, we had great Numbers [of Houyhnhnms] … [that] Yahoo-Servants were employed to rub their Skins smooth [etc.]. Ibid. (1735), Lett. to Sympson. I must … confess, that … some Corruptions of my Yahoo Nature have revived in me.
1751. Warton, New-market, 192.
| In whom Pride, Avarice, Ignorance conspire, | |
| That hated Animal, a Yahoo-Squire. |
1888. F. Harrison, in Fortn. Rev., Nov., 681. Pessimist pictures of human destiny and Ya-hoo theories of human nature.
Hence (nonce-wds.) Yahoo v. intr., to behave like a yahoo; Yahoodom, the realm of yahoos, yahoos collectively; Yahooish a., resembling or characteristic of a yahoo; Yahooism, style or quality characteristic or suggestive of a yahoo.
1868. Yates, Rock Ahead, III. III. v. 161. They don’t actually annoy me, except by bein’ such a dam low-bred lot, *yahooin’ all over the place.
1906. Sun (N. Y.), 17 Aug., 4/1. One dictum in a Judge’s mouth can overrule them all and unleash all *Yahoodom.
1885. Masson, Carlyle, i. 37. The infrahuman, the *Yahooish, the diabolic.
1862. Rossetti, in Fraser’s Mag., July, 70. Those *yahooisms are degrading in art.
1901. Speaker, 5 Jan., 374/1. In the Scotsman we have Yahooism militant.
