Coined by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver's Travels. According to the Century Dictionary, "[a] made name, prob[ably] meant to suggest disgust".
Meanings
One of a race of brutes, who look and act similar to men, inhabiting the same land as the civilized Houyhnhnms.
I therefore often begged his Favour to let me go among the Herds of Yahoos in the Neighbourhood, to which he always very graciouſly conſented, being perfectly convinced, that the Hatred I bore thoſe Brutes, would never ſuffer me to be corrupted by them; […] 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Relates Several Particulars of the Yahoos. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), pages 271–272:
From the company name Yahoo!; see more on origin there.
Meanings
(informal) An employee of the Internet company Yahoo!
But having two beaming Chief Yahoos on the cover is an implied seal of approval. 1996, Newsweek, volume 127:
Some Yahoos got filthy rich, but many more lost it all. 2004, Chris Turner, Planet Simpson: how a cartoon masterpiece defined a generation:
Instead of driving down the street to meetings, soon Yahoos need merely stroll the walkways that crisscrossed a bright green lawn. 2002, Karen Angel, Inside Yahoo!: reinvention and the road ahead:
That is what I plan to do at Yahoo: give the end user something valuable and delightful that makes them want to come to Yahoo every day. 2013 December 11, Megan Garber, quoting Marissa Mayer, “Is ‘Delightful’ the New ‘Cool’?”, in James Bennet, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 Dec 2013:
A person with a Gmail account can send messages to a person with a Yahoo account because email systems are interoperable. 2022 October 13, Binyamin Appelbaum, “It Shouldn’t Matter So Much Whether Elon Musk Buys Twitter”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 13 Oct 2022:
You have every right to be skeptical as another big company — this time it’s Yahoo — says you can claim some cash to make amends for a massive data breach. 2019 October 15, David Lazarus, “Column: Yahoo offers data breach victims up to $358 each in settlement. But don’t bank on it”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 15 Oct 2019:
From the company name Yahoo!; see more on origin there.
Meanings
(Internet, informal, intransitive, transitive) To search using the Yahoo! search engine.
We are not super-tech-savvy people because we would have Googled, I suspect, but we Yahooed, and the top 10 sites were pornographic. 2008 July 16, David Gratzer, “Statement of David Gratzer, M.D., Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research”, in Getting Better Value in Health Care: Hearing Before the Committee on the Budget House of Representatives; […] (Serial No. 110–37), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, page 23:
He Googled, Binged, and Yahooed sharks, shark life, shark types, shark history, shark food, and anything else shark-related. 2014, Ellen J. Prager, “Behind the Jungle Wall”, in The Shark Whisperer, Minneapolis, Minn.: Scarletta Junior Readers, →ISBN, page 12:
I searched, Yahooed, Googled and everything else I could. 2008, Frederick Thomas, Buddha's Bones, Buddha's Bones, →ISBN, page 46:
I watched as she Googled, Yahooed, Asked, and used a couple of search engines I’d never heard of. 2007, Linda O. Johnston, The Fright of the Iguana, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Prime Crime, →ISBN, page 29: