Yahoo (Gulliver's Travels)
- Yahoo (Gulliver's Travels)
A Yahoo is a legendary being in the novel "Gulliver's Travels" (1726) by Jonathan Swift.
Swift describes the Yahoos as vile and savage creatures, filthy and with unpleasant habits, resembling human beings far too closely for the liking of protagonist Lemuel Gulliver, who finds the calm and rational society of intelligent horses the Houyhnhnms far preferable. The Yahoos are primitive creatures obsessed with "pretty stones" they find by digging in mud, thus representing the distasteful materialism and ignorant elitism Swift encountered in Britain. Hence the term "Yahoo" has become synonymous with "cretin," "dinosaur," and/or "Neanderthal." It is doubtful that there is any connection with any Hebrew roots as it has been proposed by some. The negative use of the Hebrew name Jehu is due to the actions of this ancient king and never in reference to the original meaning of the name.
American frontiersman Daniel Boone [ [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-16334432.html Did fiction give birth to Bigfoot?] by Hugh H. Trotti] claimed that he killed a hairy giant that he called a Yahoo. Boone often used terms from "Gulliver's Travels".
Yahoos were referenced in some of letters the killer called "Son of Sam" sent to New York City police in the 1970s.
References
ee also
*Caveman
*Houyhnhnm
*Struldbrug, also from Gulliver's Travels
*Brobdingnag
*Lilliput and Blefuscu
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Gulliver's Travels — (1726, amended 1735), officially Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships , is a novel by Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a… … Wikipedia
Gulliver's Travels — Les Voyages de Gulliver Les Voyages de Gulliver Auteur Jonathan Swift Genre Roman Pays d origine … Wikipédia en Français
Yahoo (disambiguation) — Yahoo (or Yahoo! ) is a popular internet content provider, originally a search engine/website directoryYahoo may also refer to:* yahoo, a noun, meaning a brute, a crude person, often lacking in intelligence, and uninterested in culture, a yokel,… … Wikipedia
Yahoo — Ya hoo, n. 1. One of a race of filthy brutes in Swift s Gulliver s Travels. See in the Dictionary of Noted Names in Fiction. [Webster 1913 Suppl.] 2. Hence, any brutish or vicious character. [Webster 1913 Suppl.] 3. A raw countryman; a lout; a… … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
yahoo — (n.) a brute in human form, 1726, from the race of brutish human creatures in Swift s Gulliver s Travels. The internet search engine so called from 1994 … Etymology dictionary
yahoo — ► NOUN informal ▪ a rude, coarse, or brutish person. ORIGIN named after an imaginary race in Jonathan Swift s Gulliver s Travels (1726) … English terms dictionary
Yahoo — [yä′ho͞o΄] n. 1. in Swift s Gulliver s Travels, any of a race of brutish, degraded creatures subject to the Houyhnhnms and having the form and all the vices of man: see also HOUYHNHNM 2. [y ] a person who is variously thought of as being coarse,… … English World dictionary
Gulliver — Les Voyages de Gulliver Les Voyages de Gulliver Auteur Jonathan Swift Genre Roman Pays d origine … Wikipédia en Français
Yahoo! — This article is about the corporation. For the search engine, see Yahoo! Search. For other uses, see Yahoo (disambiguation). Yahoo! Inc. Type Public Traded as NASDAQ: … Wikipedia
Yahoo — yahooism, n. /yah hooh, yay , yah hooh /, n., pl. Yahoos. 1. (in Swift s Gulliver s Travels) one of a race of brutes, having the form and all the vices of humans, who are subject to the Houyhnhnms. 2. (l.c.) an uncultivated or boorish person;… … Universalium
