# expression: "yea high" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 8, 2013, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-yea-high/665697 "2013-08-08T12:51:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-yea-high/665697/1 "2013-08-08T12:51:07Z")
eg. “He’s about yea(sp?) high.” together with gesture showing the height. the meaning is obvious from context. i am curious what the actual word is. is it Yiddish or something? ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-yea-high/665697/2 "2013-08-08T12:53:10Z")
I’m not sure of its origins, but I’ve always seen it spelled out as “yay high”. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-yea-high/665697/3 "2013-08-08T13:12:06Z")
This word, with the “yay” spelling (which I expected), and its meaning and etymology is listed in [Wiktionary](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yay_high#Adverb). I’m not sure what it means there by “not comparable”. I would translate “yay” in this context as “approximately”. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-yea-high/665697/4 "2013-08-08T13:13:36Z")
hmm, googled and it appears “yay high” is a US slang dating back to the 1950s according to the OED, but their online dictionary does not contain the phrase. ---
**Author:** ![JBDivmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@JBDivmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBDivmstr)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-yea-high/665697/5 "2013-08-08T13:23:26Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > hmm, googled and it appears “yay high” is a US slang dating back to the 1950s according to the OED, but their online dictionary does not contain the phrase. _Only_ 1950s? :dubious: I would hazard to guess that it goes back much further than that. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-yea-high/665697/6 "2013-08-08T13:30:41Z")
Possibly appeared in a Western of the late 1940s-early 50s? It has that faux-cowboy ring to it and if the OED thinks it’s mid-50s, I’d take that as a valid first approximation. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-yea-high/665697/7 "2013-08-08T13:42:01Z")
stab in the dark, Yea it came to pass = so it came to pass Yea high = so high if that’s the case then it is probably pretty ancient in usage ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-yea-high/665697/8 "2013-08-08T13:52:42Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > I’m not sure what it means there by “not comparable”. Something can’t be yayer, yayest, less yay, least yay, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-yea-high/665697/9 "2013-08-08T14:09:34Z")
[Online etymology dictionary](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=yay&searchmode=none) > [@](#): > > yay > “this,” as in yay big “this big,” 1950s, perhaps from yea “yes” in its sense of “even, truly, verily.” “a sort of demonstrative adverb used with adjectives of size, height, extent, etc., and often accompanied by a hand gesture indicating size” [DAS]. DAS is the Dictionary of American Slang. I’m also surprised that it’s this recent. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-yea-high/665697/10 "2013-08-08T14:28:32Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > is it Yiddish or something? Just curious: Why do you think it might be Yiddish? ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-yea-high/665697/11 "2013-08-08T14:51:21Z")
Because everything that’s not sanskrit or tamil is yiddish. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-yea-high/665697/12 "2013-08-08T15:18:51Z")
Google books shows lots of emhatic usage of “yea” (as in “yea, verily”), but notably with lots of variation on “it is time; yea, high time” and “praise; yea, high praise.” So “yea” and “high” were already collocating with each other well before the 1950s. Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang says African-American slang, but not why they suggest that. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-yea-high/665697/13 "2013-08-08T15:21:47Z")
FWIW, [an earlier discussion](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=404155) from some years back. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-yea-high/665697/14 "2013-08-09T06:33:25Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Because everything that’s not sanskrit or tamil is yiddish. Er, why Tamil? How many phrases in common English-speaking use are even related to Tamil ones? ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-yea-high/665697/15 "2013-08-09T07:09:11Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > hmm, googled and it appears “yay high” is a US slang dating back to the 1950s according to the OED, but their online dictionary does not contain the phrase. I checked my (printed) copy of the OED, and it cites the Dictionary of American Slang 1960 edition as the first use in print. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-yea-high/665697/16 "2013-08-09T07:26:34Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > This word, with the “yay” spelling (which I expected), and its meaning and etymology is listed in [Wiktionary](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yay_high#Adverb). I’m not sure what it means there by “not comparable”. > > I would translate “yay” in this context as “approximately”. I don’t think so. I am pretty sure I have heard “about yay high”. As your Wictionary link says, it actually seems to mean “so” or “this”: It is a demonstrative, always used with a gesture to indicate actual height (or size, length, etc.). > [@Indistinguishable](#): > > Er, why Tamil? How many phrases in common English-speaking use are even related to Tamil ones? I don’t have an example to give off the top of my head, but it would be surprising if we did not import a few Tamil expressions from the days of the Raj (not to mention subsequent Indian immigration into Britain). ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-yea-high/665697/17 "2013-08-09T08:20:13Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > I don’t have an example to give off the top of my head, but it would be surprising if we did not import a few Tamil expressions from the days of the Raj (not to mention subsequent Indian immigration into Britain). There are a few, mostly food(/plant)-oriented: curry, mango, mulligatawny, patchouli. Also, catamaran, corundum, and pariah. “ginger” may be cognate to Tamil “ingi”. And, of course, there are cases where Tamil borrowed from Sanskrit a word of wider spread (e.g., Tamil has a cognate to English “orange”). But, in general, there seem to be very few Tamil imports into English (and, as opposed to the indirect connections between Sanskrit (or, more contemporarily, Hindi) and English, there are essentially no significant connections between Tamil and English other than such scattered borrowings, as Tamil is not an Indo-European language). ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-yea-high/665697/18 "2013-08-09T13:53:10Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > Er, why Tamil? How many phrases in common English-speaking use are even related to Tamil ones? It was a joke. There are a lot of websites and articles that explain in great and crazy detail how all languages came from Tamil or Sanskrit. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-yea-high/665697/19 "2013-08-09T18:37:11Z")
Ah, yeah. Sorry for being thick; that’s actually a pretty good joke. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2013, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-yea-high/665697/20 "2013-08-10T10:45:20Z")
i chose Yiddish at random. it’s just some exotic language which i’ve not heard before, “Oy vey, i was just yea high when i had my first fisticuffs.” > [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > I checked my (printed) copy of the OED, and it cites the Dictionary of American Slang 1960 edition as the first use in print. thanks for checking. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expression-yea-high/665697.md?page=2)