yo

English Online Dictionary. What means yo‎? What does yo mean?

Translingual

Symbol

yo

1. (international standards) ISO 639-1 language code for Yoruba.

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /jəʊ/
• Rhymes: -əʊ
• (US) IPA^(key): /joʊ/

Etymology 1

As a greeting first attested in 1859, attested first as a cry of sailors and huntsmen (first attested in the 1400s; compare e.g. huzzah, giddyup). Originally from Middle English yo, io, ȝo, yeo, yaw, variant forms of ya, ye (“yes, yea”), from Old English ġēa (“yes, yea”), from Proto-Germanic *ja (“yes, thus, so”); or perhaps from Old English ēow (“Wo!, Alas!”, interjection). Compare Danish, Swedish, German, Norwegian jo (“yes (flexible meaning)”), Dutch jow (“hi, hey”) and Dutch jo (“hi, hey”). More at yea, ow, ew.

Modern popularity apparently dates from World War II (claimed to be a common response at roll calls; see definition 4), and then most intensely attested in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; it thence spread globally from American dominance of pop culture post-WWII.

Interjection

yo

1. (slang) A greeting similar to hi.

   Synonyms: oi, wotcher

2. (slang) An interjection similar to hey.

   Synonyms: ahoy, oi; see also Thesaurus:hey

3. (slang) An expression of surprise or excitement.
4. (military slang) Present! Here!

   Sergeant: Smith?
   Private Smith: Yo!

5. (chiefly African-American Vernacular) Emphatic conclusion to a statement.
   • 2010, "Kafkaesque" (Breaking Bad TV series, season 3, episode 9)

     JESSE: That is messed up, yo.

Synonyms

• (greeting): hey, hi; see also Category:English greetings
• (interjection): hey

Derived terms

• yo-ho
• yo-ho-ho

Translations

Etymology 2

From you're, your, etc.

Alternative forms

• yo'

Determiner

yo

1. (colloquial) Pronunciation spelling of your.

Derived terms

• yo momma

Pronoun

yo

1. (Baltimore) third-person singular, familiar

   Yo was tuckin' in his shirt! (Stotko and Troyer 2007)

Etymology 3

Noun

yo

1. Abbreviation of year(s) old; also y.o., y/o.
2. (crochet) Initialism of yarn over.

Etymology 4

From Russian ё (jo).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jɒ/

Noun

yo (plural yos)

1. The letter Ё, ё.

Derived terms

• yoficator

Translations

Etymology 5

Numeral

yo

1. Short for yoleven.

Etymology 6

From irregular romanization of the standard Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 龠 (yuè).

Noun

yo (plural yo or yos)

1. Obsolete form of yue, a traditional Chinese unit of volume.

See also

Anagrams

• oy

Afar

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈjo/ [ˈjɔ]

Pronoun

yó

1. I, me

Usage notes

• The form yóo is used when the pronoun isn't followed by a clitic.

See also

References

• E. M. Parker, R. J. Hayward (1985) “yo”, in An Afar-English-French dictionary (with Grammatical Notes in English), University of London, →ISBN

Aragonese

Etymology

Inherited from Late Latin eo, from Classical Latin egō̆.

Pronoun

yo m sg or f sg

1. First-person singular nominative pronoun; I

See also

References

• “yo”, in Aragonario, diccionario castellano–aragonés (in Spanish)

Asturian

Etymology

Inherited from Late Latin eo, from Classical Latin egō̆.

Pronoun

yo

1. I (first-person singular pronoun)

Chavacano

Etymology

Inherited from Spanish yo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʝo/, [ˈʝ͡ʝo]

Pronoun

yo

1. I (1st person nominative pronoun)

See also

Chinese

Etymology

From English yo.

Pronunciation

Adjective

yo

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese, chiefly university slang) outgoing; sociable

Verb

yo (Hong Kong Cantonese, chiefly university slang)

1. to act in an outgoing manner
2. to socialize with; to interact with
3. (euphemistic) Used in certain interjections to replace vulgar verbs.

Derived terms

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from English yo.

Interjection

yo

1. (slang) yo

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English yo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /joː/
• Hyphenation: yo
• Rhymes: -oː

Interjection

yo

1. (slang) yo (informal greeting, interjection similar to hey)

Guerrero Amuzgo

Adjective

yo

1. with

Haitian Creole

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jo/

Article

yo pl

1. the

Usage notes

This word is only used in its article sense when it modifies a plural noun.

See also

• a
• an
• la
• lan
• nan
• sa a (emphatic value)
• yon (indef. art.)

Pronoun

yo (contracted form y)

1. they
2. them

Indonesian

Etymology 1

A shortening of "ayo" (come on)

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English yo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /joː/
• Hyphenation: yo
• Rhymes: -oː

Interjection

yo

1. (slang) yo (greeting, interjection similar to hey)

Japanese

Romanization

yo

1. The hiragana syllable よ (yo) or the katakana syllable ヨ (yo) in Hepburn romanization.

Kristang

Pronoun

yo

1. I (first-person singular personal pronoun)

See also

References

Ladino

Etymology

From Old Spanish yo, from Late Latin eo, from Classical Latin egō̆.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jo/, /jɔ/

Pronoun

yo (Latin spelling, Hebrew spelling ייו)

1. I

Lashi

Etymology 1

From Proto-Lolo-Burmese *hja, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *hja. Cognates include Jingpho yi.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jo˧/, [ju˧˩]

Noun

yo

1. field
2. farm

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jo˧/

Noun

yo

1. peace

Etymology 3

From Proto-Lolo-Burmese [Term?], from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *g-ja. Cognates include Jingpho kăya.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /joː˧/, [jɔ˧˨]

Noun

yo

1. itch

References

• Hkaw Luk (2017) A grammatical sketch of Lacid‎^[2], Chiang Mai: Payap University (master thesis), pages 15-16

Lingala

Pronoun

yo

1. Alternative form of yɔ̂

Lower Tanana

Noun

yo

1. sky

References

• James Kari, Lower Tanana Athabaskan Listening and Writing Exercises (1991)

Mandarin

Romanization

yo (yo⁵／yo⁰, Zhuyin ˙ㄧㄛ)

1. Hanyu Pinyin reading of 喲／哟
2. Hanyu Pinyin reading of 嚛／𪠸, 𪠸

yo

1. Nonstandard spelling of yō.

Usage notes

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

Middle English

Etymology 1

Pronoun

yo

1. Alternative form of yow

Etymology 2

Pronoun

yo

1. Alternative form of heo (“she”)

Noone

Noun

yo (plural yɔ́)

1. snake

References

• R. Blench, Beboid Comparative

Norman

Alternative forms

• iâo (continental Normandy)
• iaoue (Guernsey)
• ieau (Jersey)

Etymology

From Old French yaue, ewe, euwe, egua (“water”), from Latin aqua (“water”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ekʷeh₂ (“water, flowing water”).

Noun

yo f (plural yos)

1. (Sark) water

Old Spanish

Etymology

Inherited from Late Latin eo, from Classical Latin egō̆.

Adverb

yo

1. I

Descendants

• Ladino: yo/ייו
• Spanish: yo
  • Chavacano: yo

Pali

Alternative forms

Pronoun

yo

1. masculine nominative singular of ya (“who (relative)”)

Spanish

Etymology

From Old Spanish yo, from Late Latin eo, from Classical Latin egō̆.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -o
• Syllabification: yo

Pronoun

yo

1. First-person singular pronoun in the nominative case; I

Usage notes

• When more pronouns are included in the same sentence, it is considered impolite to say the pronoun yo at first; it must be the last one (this also applies to mí):

  Iremos Rosa, tú y yo. ― Rosa, you and I will go.

Derived terms

See also

Noun

yo m (plural yos or yoes)

1. (psychoanalysis) Freud's concept of the ego

Descendants

• Chavacano: yo

Further reading

• “yo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

Turkish

Alternative forms

• yoo

Etymology

Clipping of yok.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /joː/

Interjection

yo

1. (informal) no
2. (informal) Term of objection, roughly equivalent to nope, nah or naw.

Further reading

• “yo”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu
• Çağbayır, Yaşar (2007) “yo¹”, in Ötüken Türkçe Sözlük (in Turkish), Istanbul: Ötüken Neşriyat, page 5343

West Makian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jo/

Particle

yo

1. sentence-final action negation particle; not

   de tifiam yo ― I am not eating

Usage notes

Specifically negates action verbs (intransitive, transitive, ditransitive, etc.). To negate a stative verb, see wayo. The verbs seba/tope (“to want”) are not negated by ua, which would be ungrammatical. Instead, one uses the verb fono (“to not want”).

References

• Clemens Voorhoeve (1982) The Makian languages and their neighbours‎^[3], Pacific linguistics

Xhosa

Pronoun

-yo

1. Combining stem of yona.

Yanomamö

Noun

yo (plural yoku)

1. path, trail, a path marked by hand-broken branches

References

• Lizot, Jacques (2004) Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua yãnomãmɨ‎^[4] (in Spanish), Vicariato apostólico de Puerto Ayacucho, →ISBN

Ye'kwana

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɟo]

Verb

yo

1. (transitive) to leave (someone) without a portion from the hunt

References

• Cáceres, Natalia (2011) “yo”, in Grammaire Fonctionnelle-Typologique du Ye’kwana‎^[5], Lyon

Yoruba

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jó/

Verb

yó

1. to become saturated with food or drinks; to become full (after eating)
   1. to become drunk
2. to become fleshy or robust (in reference to the belly or body)
3. (idiomatic, euphemistic) to become pregnant

Derived terms

• Àwòyó (“a nickname for the orisha Yemọja”)

Zulu

Pronoun

-yo

1. Combining stem of yona.