# Yazoo

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yazoo/565480>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 27, 2010, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yazoo/565480 "2010-12-27T02:32:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![WmJames](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@WmJames](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WmJames)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yazoo/565480/1 "2010-12-27T02:32:06Z")

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How did “yazoo” come to mean “up the butt”, as “up the yazoo”. I know it is a river in Mississippi that runs into the Mississippi River, and that during the siege of Vicksburg the river played a role (e.g., Grant’s troops went “up the Yazoo” to attempt to attack Vicksburg from the east).

Now, “up the yazoo” means “abundant”, as in, “he has money up the yazoo”. I can’t find the origins of the slang use.

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**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yazoo/565480/2 "2010-12-27T02:56:56Z")

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You’re thinking of the wrong word. It’s “wazoo”.

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**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yazoo/565480/3 "2010-12-27T03:10:54Z")

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I concur on the idea that “wazoo” appears to be the common slang usage, with “kazoo”, “yazoo”, and “wazool” as variants.

Merriam-Webster says that its origin is unknown, dating it back to 1893, though another dictionary source claims it was not known until 1961. Wikipedia’s disambiguation page has this to say:

> [@](#):
>
> Slang for anus Originally derived from the Pama-Nyungan languages (the family of Indigenous Australian languages), and thought to refer to the anus of an animal, particularly the kangaroo

But no source is given for the claim, so it may be one with the dropbears in dry Aussie humour.

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**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yazoo/565480/4 "2010-12-27T03:23:39Z")

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Now, where did _up/out the yaa yaa_ and _up/out the giggy_ come from?

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**Author:** ![WmJames](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@WmJames](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WmJames)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yazoo/565480/5 "2010-12-27T06:23:42Z")

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I heard way back when I was in the service.

see the entry here:

[http://faculty.buffalostate.edu/fishlm/articles/glossary.htm](http://faculty.buffalostate.edu/fishlm/articles/glossary.htm)