Talk:yeet

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Shouldn't the past tense be "yote" instead of "yeeted"? Jordandc428 (talk) 16:28, 17 November 2017 (UTC)

That's just what memes and edgy kids use these days (and not in the sense of "to use the pronoun ye"). I doubt yote is citable. —Aryaman^{A (मुझसे बात करें • योगदान)} 16:33, 17 November 2017 (UTC)

I wonder if "yeeted" is citable either. Equinox ◑ 16:34, 17 November 2017 (UTC)

I don't know if this counts as a citation, but there are 30+ entries on Urban Dictionary that state so, and nothing to the contrary. I understand that it's not really a reliable source; it still works, however. --Aquablue12 (talk) 05:18, 4 May 2018 (UTC)

I've seen yeeted in a story posted on Reddit, in the sense of "threw". I'm not up-to-date on Wiktionary policies; is this an appropriate source to cite? --Ginkgo100 (talk) 03:46, 19 April 2019 (UTC)

RFV discussion: December 2017–January 2018

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yeet

Hot word older than a year. DTLHS (talk) 19:17, 25 December 2017 (UTC)

I assume, then, that this request for verification does not apply to the Etymology 2 section (the obsolete verb)? For the Etymology I section, I have cited the dance, and have added three cites for the exclamation, although they are spread over multiple definitions. We could probably consolidate those meanings.... Kiwima (talk) 21:28, 25 December 2017 (UTC)

RFV-resolved. Interjection senses have been consolidated. Dance is cited. Kiwima (talk) 02:14, 26 January 2018 (UTC)

Past Tense and Participle of Yeet (Modern USA Usage)

The past tense of Yeet recognized by most people is “yote,” — the same with the participle as well. E.g. “I yote my water bottle to the end of the hallway,” or “I yote on my siblings after I won the MarioKart race,” and “I’ve yote my water bottle before,” or “I’ve seen a water bottle yote before.” I’ve also seen the past participle be Yaught, because it sounds nicer and is a different word.

Maybe get this resolved and edit the page?? Aquablue12 (talk) 05:00, 4 May 2018 (UTC)

Yeet has another informal meaning.

In the famous vine, they say "This bitch empty! Yeet!" I do think that this counts as another meaning used when throwing something.

Evieliam (talk) 14:25, 7 May 2018 (UTC)

And yet, another!

In my area (Virginia Beach) and in some cases over the internet, I have heard it used almost as a euphemism for "(to) steal".

Past tense of yeet

Shouldn't the past tense of yeet be "yaught" like in seek, and see? E.g. seek, sought, see, saw, yeet, yaught/yought.

No, those are very old words but "yeet" is new slang, which rarely follows the old patterns. Equinox ◑ 12:07, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

Reconstruction of yeet

So by comparing different words close to yeet in both phonetics and orthography we can conclude that the Proto-Germanic root for yeet would be something like *jōtijaną, following the evolution of words such as meet, or seek. Now this would make the past tense of yeet either yeeted or yet. We can also determine that the old norse word would have been jœta (then swedish jöta, norwegian jøte). e.g. PGmc *jōtijaną > Old English ġētan > Middle English ȝeten, ȝeeten > English yeet

UltHumanSp (talk) 13:00, 22 november 2018 (UTC)

Indeed. The only strong verb that rhymes with yeet (and that only secondarily, as still shown by the orthography) is eat, which doesn't fit any of the strong verb classes and is a special, irregular case. Nor are there strong verbs ending in -eed that could work as a role model. With other stops, there's the same problem. Words that actually rhyme with yeet, like meet, are weak. So the suggested yote is incompatible with the patterns of English strong verbs. I'm not sure what the model for it should be (break, for instance, doesn't particularly resemble yeet at all). The verbs seek and see mentioned above aren't obvious role models either. If anything, going by meet, the past tense should be (as you correctly point out) yet (< Old English **ġētte).

The German cognate would be jüßen, then. :-)

By the way: Is yeet ever used as an interjection when throwing too? Because that would be the most plausible etymology for this sense that I can see. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 01:21, 17 May 2019 (UTC)

RFV discussion: April–June 2019

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yeet

RFV for both purported verb senses: "to move quickly", "to throw an object a long distance or with a sudden or forceful motion". Seems like if it is actually used a verb, it's a nonce word with an ambiguous meaning. Also needs appropriate labels if it can be verified. — surjection ⟨?⟩ 18:42, 22 April 2019 (UTC)

For second sense:

2018 September 13, Stacey Ritzen, “What does ‘yeet’ mean—and how did it become a meme?”, in The Daily Dot‎^[1]:

Yeet can take on any number of uses as a noun or a verb, typically as a way to express a sudden or forceful motion, such as throwing an object long distance.

2019 August 26, Allie Lembo, “13 slang words everyone is using and what they really mean”, in Insider Inc.‎^[2]:

Finally, it's also used as a verb for "[discarding] an item at a high velocity," such as throwing an empty can into the trash. "Yeeting" something may be accompanied by the exclamation of the word.

2019 May, John McWhorter, “Why Grown-Ups Keep Talking Like Little Kids”, in The Atlantic‎^[3]:

One now speaks of “yeeting” an empty can into the trash, and the word has even developed an irregular past-tense form, yote.

93 (talk) 22:25, 26 April 2019 (UTC)

Those are all mentions or at the very least mention-y. — surjection ⟨?⟩ 16:14, 28 April 2019 (UTC)

• (Probably) cited. The Princetonian quote is a bit iffy. Julia ☺ ☆ 20:33, 13 May 2019 (UTC)

• I can definitely say it it used as a verb, but the meaning is indeed ambiguous. I added a sense "To destroy or obliterate" which in my experience may be the main usage, but then again, it is ambiguous, and I am unsure if it's even possible to define without appealing to experience. I believe it is part of the gag - the word has only a very general definition, and can be freely inserted in varied situations in memes or jokes. Ido66667 (talk) 11:17, 30 May 2019 (UTC)

RFV-resolved. Removed the sense "To destroy or obliterate", as it had no citations. @Ido66667 - You can restore that sense if you provide some citations to back it up. Kiwima (talk) 22:16, 22 June 2019 (UTC)

Usage in the early 1800s.

According to Google Ngram Viewer, the word yeet was in usage well before the year 2000, and experienced a spike in usage between 1827-1841. Is there anything to explain this spike, or the fact that the word was being used (unlikely in the same way) so long before the purported beginning of the word? Wilhelm von Freiben (talk) 18:35, 8 October 2019 (UTC)

Well it very clearly wasn't the modern Internet slang sense! Can you find examples of sentences using it? Perhaps it's a common scanno for another word like "yes". Equinox ◑ 18:36, 8 October 2019 (UTC)

I've found two instances on page 201 of "History of Mary Queen of Scots" by Adam Blackwood (1834). It doesn't seem to be an archaic English word, but rather one from a closely related language like Scots. I'm not a linguist, however, so I can't really tell. Wilhelm von Freiben (talk) 16:21, 10 October 2019 (UTC)

 Done I see: it is apparently a Scots form of yet. Equinox ◑ 11:14, 11 October 2019 (UTC)

RFV discussion: December 2019

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yeet

From what I've read

• yeeted and yote are both cited/used forms, with odd 'yate' being occasionally seen. French Wiktionary lists preterite as 'yeeted' or 'yote'
• one user posted that yeet might be related to the french word 'jeter', meaning 'to throw'. 'jeter' is cognate with the English 'jet' (cf. Lat. iactare), like in 'jet engine' or 'jet stream'. Connotations of forceful movement/throwing.
• iactare may also present itself through Spanish 'echar', from US usage.
• several articles also write that 'yeet' is a variation of either 'yes' (as an interjection) or 'neat' (also as an interjection)
• re-analysis of yeet into yote probably stems as an analogy to 'freeze' -> 'froze'
• possible antonym of 'yoink'
• may be onomatopoeic

@Tki5772, Why did you add this here? The entry for yeet has been through RFV twice now. There is no RFV tag in the entry to indicate what you want verified. Please provide more information about what you are asking for. Kiwima (talk) 21:38, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Earlier definition of “Yeet”

Moved here from Equinox's talk page:

This is probably the wrong place to post this, but Wikipedia is much more locked down than it used to be. I saw your handle on the entry for “Yeet,” so I’ll try this here, then give up.

We used the word “yeet“ in the 80s (Northern Virginia, school age), only it meant a particular kind of spitting then, through the teeth. I haven’t yet found references to it online, so either it was localized to the point of historical irrelevance, or there just wasn’t wide enough access to the net in the 80s to capture our lexicon. I wish I had more citations, but it bothered me to read the wiki entry for yeet when it said: “Originating and coined in the mid-2000s…” Argh. False. Popularized, or reborn, perhaps.

The end. — This unsigned comment was added by Scampercom (talk • contribs) at 08:23, 15 February 2020 (UTC).

Whatever can be said about your experience with the word back then, the current word doesn't seem to have come from that. It's entirely possible for a short word like this to be coined more than once, with unrelated meanings- look at the other etymology. Your definition and the modern definition have nothing to do with second-person pronouns. If you do find the necessary evidence, it will probably end up as a third etymology. In other words, the statement about the term being coined in the mid-2000s can be correct without saying anything about the existence of your sense. Chuck Entz (talk) 00:35, 18 February 2020 (UTC)

Etymology

I wonder if there's a connection with obsolete (Early Middle English only?) yode (“went”) and yede ~ yeed (“went; (pseudo-archaism) to go”). Probably not, but it just reminded me of the whole yeet/yote business. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 18:29, 27 May 2020 (UTC)

King of the Hill Usage in Modern Context

An early modern usage can be found in the King of the Hill episode "To Kill a Ladybird", season 4 episode 9, at approximately the 14 minute mark. Dale Gribble clearly says yeet while throwing a tape recorder. This episode originally aired on December 12, 1999. — This comment was unsigned.

I tracked down the episode. He does indeed say something similar to "yeet" while throwing the recorder, but it's not exactly /jit/, it's more like /dʒjit/. - -sche (discuss) 20:11, 6 June 2022 (UTC)

Dale in King of the Hill often makes "eek" and "ick"-type noises. This isn't the "yeet" we know now. Equinox ◑ 22:00, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

Is there any evidence of Jeremy Clarkson actually coining the word in it's modern usage?

I've tried googling and I can't find anything that would indicate he coined the word. Even if he intentionally said it in the show, there doesn't seem to be any relation from that to the modern word coming from Vine in 2012ish. It seems to just be a fan theory that made its way here and never got challenged. Prime624 (talk) 17:39, 6 June 2022 (UTC)

Good question. I've solicited broader input at Wiktionary:Etymology scriptorium/2022/June#yeet. - -sche (discuss) 20:21, 6 June 2022 (UTC)

Past participle

I have seen "yoten" be used as the past participle of yeet in the context of yote being used as the past tense. Example sentence: The dodgeball was yoten at the last remaining kid on the opposing team. Therefore, it should be included as a past participle of yeet, particularly when yote is used. Netizen3102 (talk) 18:48, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

@Netizen3102: When you re-created yoten, you were shown a warning box saying that it had been deleted before. See Talk:yoten. You ignored this box and created it again anyway. That is wrong and you must not do it. Deleted again. In future, read those warnings. Thanks. Equinox ◑ 21:58, 15 September 2023 (UTC)