yada yada yada

Contents

EnglishEdit

EtymologyEdit

American, origin unclear, perhaps onomatopoeic of blather; perhaps adaptation of dialectal speech, perhaps from yatata or yatter. Various variant forms appear in the US 1940s–60s; for example, the 1947 American musical Allegro by Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers contains a song called “Yatata, Yatata, Yatata,” about cocktail party chatter; see talk page for additional citations.

Popularized in the United States in the late 1990s by TV show Seinfeld, where it appears as a catchphrase, initially in Season 8, Episode 19, entitled “The Yada Yada”, originally aired on April 24, 1997, which centers around the phrase (in the duplicative “yada yada” form).

Sometimes popularly attributed to Yiddish, but this is dismissed by etymologists. It is perhaps derived from the Norwegian expression "Jada, Jada" which has a similar pronunciation and interpretation.

Alternative formsEdit

• yada, yada, yada
• yadda yadda yadda
• yadda, yadda, yadda

PhraseEdit

yada yada yada (or yada, yada, yada)

1. And so on; and so forth.
2. (less commonly): blah blah blah.

Usage notesEdit

Normally used mid-sentence.

They’re no good, the lot of them—Yaddeyahdah—They're animals! —Lenny Bruce

SynonymsEdit

• (and so on): and so forth, and so on, and yada yada, and yadda yadda, etc., etcetera

QuotationsEdit

• 1981, The Washington Post, January 5th, 1981, page B1:

  I’m talking country codes, asbestos firewalls, yada yada yada.

TranslationsEdit

and so on

• Swedish: bla bla bla

ReferencesEdit

• The Big Apple: “Yada, Yada, Yada” ("Yadda, Yadda, Yadda”; “Yatata, Yatata, Yatata"), May 25, 2008