yada yada yada
Contents
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
American,[1] origin unclear, perhaps onomatopoeic of blather; perhaps adaptation of dialectal speech, perhaps from yatata or yatter.[2] 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 television 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).[3]
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
PhraseEdit
yada yada yada (or yada, yada, yada)
- And so on; and so forth.
- (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
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ReferencesEdit
- ^ OED
- ^ “yada yada yada” in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–.
- ^ On this date, Seinfeld made “Yada Yada Yada” a catchphrase (but didn’t coin it), This Day in Quotes, April 24, 2010