Jill in Indianapolis, Indiana, wonders how to spell the one-syllable cheer that starts with Y. Is it yay or yea? Since the 1930s, yay has been used as a little celebratory word. The word yea is much older and used in formal texts to mean “indeed.” An example is in the psalm that contains the verse Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “How “Yay” Became the Spelling for Cheers While Yea Stayed Formal for “Indeed””
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Jill Enderstrode. I’m calling from Indianapolis, Indiana.
Hi, Jill.
Hi, how are you?
All right, what’s up?
Well, my question involves the word yay, and our newspaper here in Indianapolis has a section called Let It Out, where people can kind of complain about things or just say random things that are then published in the newspaper.
And my mom was reading the newspaper the other day. Someone was complaining about the way that kids these days use the word yay and spell it Y-A-Y when it’s actually supposed to be spelled Y-E-A. And my mom emphatically agreed with this Indianapolis Stars subscriber. And I didn’t actually realize that this was even an issue.
My six-month-old daughter has a t-shirt that says yay, Y-A-Y. I usually spell it Y-A-Y. And so I was wondering if maybe you all could weigh in on what the proper spelling of this word is or maybe how it’s evolved to its current spelling. Kids, what’s the matter with kids today? It’s very get off my lawn.
Yes, I like the way you described it. It’s basically the moaning section of the newspaper. I heard it called the original Twitter.
The original Twitter. The agony, agony, the agonizing column, maybe we’d call it.
Yeah.
Okay, so this is complicated. So you’re saying that your mom and the person who wrote to the Indianapolis Star believe that when we say yay, it should be spelled Y-E-A.
Right, as in cheering.
Okay, so the cheering. So yay, go team, they think it should be Y-E-A.
Yes.
Okay, and you’re saying it should be Y-A-Y.
I don’t necessarily have a preference, but I’m not sold on the idea that Y-A-Y is not a legitimate spelling.
Yes. Right there. You nailed the crux of it, Jill. That’s the crux of it.
The Y-A-Y use that is a celebratory and exclamatory and is about delight and excitement is Y-A-Y. Yay!
And as a matter of fact, we don’t have concrete examples of Y-E-A used in that kind of way in the last hundred years.
Like Y-E-A, also pronounced yay, by the way, is typically relegated to formal text, legal text or legal arguments or legal situations. It is not the kind of thing that you encounter in day-to-day speech and haven’t for, again, a century.
Yeah, you see it a lot in the Bible. Yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow. Yay, verily.
But they’re not celebrating walking through the valley of the shadow of death. I mean, maybe getting through it.
Yeah, maybe getting through it. Yay!
So these are two different yays. And to call them the same term would be a mistake. However, they do both come from the same origin.
They go back to these ancient Germanic roots that English has. All of the Germanic languages that I can think of have words similar to ye of either spelling that mean yes. And so this is connected.
But what happened is over the millennia, this word has split off. And we’ve gotten Y-E-S and we have Y-E-A and we have Y-A-Y and we have Y-E-P and we have Y-E-A-H.
So they’re all connected etymologically, but they’re now distinct and have developed their own roles and their own properties in English.
So this is not a victim of the text message?
No.
No, that makes sense. I found examples. The Oxford English Dictionary has an entry on this, but I found examples older than what they have.
So the 1930s of Y-A-Y being used in a celebratory way. So it’s not the text messaging. It’s not even the telegram era, I’m sure, or the telegraph era. It’s just a new word with a new meaning, and it kind of needs that new spelling to distinguish it from the other uses and the other meanings.
Oh, wow. That’s so cool.
Yeah.
Well, thank you so much.
Yeah.
And they’re going to quibble with you and argue with you about this. You should just have them call me. I’ll set them straight.
Okay.
Well, thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Our pleasure, Jill. Jill, thanks for letting it out.
Thank you.
That’s kind of our show, Let It Out, right?
Yeah, it sure is, yeah.
Thanks for calling, Jill. Take care.
Okay, bye-bye.
Bye.
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