"Yikes"

[Bad_News_Baboon]

I was talking to my mom (who speaks Spanish) and I said in conversation “Yikes!”

She was unfamiliar with the term. I explained it to her, but was left wondering how it was that we came to use this word.

I did a search for this, but I didn’t find anything, so my appologies if this has been asked before.

[Badge]

Merriam-Webster dictionary says the word dates from 1957, and may be an alteration of yoicks. Yoicks dates from the 1700’s, and was used as a call to encourage foxhounds. It doesn’t indicate where it came from.

[js_africanus]

*Originally posted by Badge *
**Merriam-Webster dictionary says the word dates from 1957, and may be an alteration of yoicks. Yoicks dates from the 1700’s, and was used as a call to encourage foxhounds. It doesn’t indicate where it came from. **

Daffy: Yoicks and away!
slams into tree
Daffy: Yoicks and away!
slams into tree…

[Tuckerfan]

*Originally posted by Badge *
**Merriam-Webster dictionary says the word dates from 1957, and may be an alteration of yoicks. Yoicks dates from the 1700’s, and was used as a call to encourage foxhounds. It doesn’t indicate where it came from. **

There’s also “Yipe!” which I would imagine dates from roughly that era. Perhaps the two words got combined.

[samclem]

The American Dialect Society had a thread on this within the last year or three. While there was a general lack of real proof, the next version of the OED will have a cite from 1955 testifying to yipes. All early references are to US sources, rather than British.