Yes

Use this forum to discuss past Good Words.
User avatar
Dr. Goodword
Site Admin
Posts: 7417
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
Location: Lewisburg, PA
Contact:

Yes

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sun Jun 08, 2014 11:13 pm

• yes •

Pronunciation: yes • Hear it!

Part of Speech: (Sentence) Adverb, Noun, Interjection

Meaning: 1. (Sentence adverb) An affirmative response to a yes-no or a negative question: "Don't you want to go?" "Yes, I do." 2. (Noun) An answer or vote of "yes": "The final count was five yeses and four nos." 3. Used to express great satisfaction at an outcome.

Notes: Today's Good Word has several variants: yeah, yep, yepper, yessir, and the emphatic yessiree—all very slangy. This word is known in linguistics as a "sentence adverb" because it is used to replace an affirmative response to a yes-no question. While we find no derivational relatives of yes, we do find a compound, yes-man, someone who servilely says yes to everything a higher authority asks.

In Play: The first meaning of today's word is the most common: "Do you think Lance Sterling loves himself more than anyone else?" "Yes, I do." The second meaning is far less often used than the first: "The passage of the motion didn't surprise me; what surprised me was the size of the yes vote." The third meaning is difficult to exemplify: After receiving the prize for this year's best Frisbee player, Dalton made a gesture like he was jerking a lever and exclaimed, "Yes!"

Word History: In Old English today's Good Word was gese "so be it", probably from gea, ge "so, yes" + si "be it", third person imperative of beon "to be". It seems to have originally represented a stronger sentiment than simple yea. Old English gea "so, yes" is from Proto-Germanic ja (pronounced [yah]), a word of affirmation still present in German, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, and Swedish. The trail goes cold at this point; no one seems to know where gea came from. It is difficult to track such small words, because they provide so little evidence to base investigations on and that evidence is easily confused. (Yes, it was Jeremy Busch, Grand Panjandrum in the Agora, who suggested today's small but very meaningful Good Word.)
• The Good Dr. Goodword

wurdpurrson
Lexiterian
Posts: 168
Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2011 7:43 pm
Location: Olympic Peninsula, WA

Re: Yes, or rather, the addendum to the entry

Postby wurdpurrson » Tue Jun 10, 2014 5:33 pm

The "yes" history was interesting, primarily because one rarely thinks about derivations of such short, common utterences. My eye was caught by the Alpha Dictionary entry, however. I've seen it before, several years ago, and was curious enough about its legendary status to check with Snopes. It is indeed an urban legend, and dates back originally to the 1920s - please see the following: http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/hell.asp
. But it was fun to revisit the clever rationale. Thanks.

User avatar
Slava
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 8040
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
Location: Finger Lakes, NY

Re: Yes

Postby Slava » Tue Jun 10, 2014 6:24 pm

I'm confused. How did you get from yes to endothermic? What am I missing? :oops:
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

wurdpurrson
Lexiterian
Posts: 168
Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2011 7:43 pm
Location: Olympic Peninsula, WA

Re: Yes and endothermic/exothermic properties

Postby wurdpurrson » Wed Jun 11, 2014 4:28 am

The daily word newsletter for June 8 featured yes. But at the bottom of the page, after the word history and the Good Doctor's sign-off, a small contained sidebar (bottom bar?) mentioned a college essay written about Hell expanding or contracting and freezing over. It sounded familiar, so I tracked it through Snopes, and there it is. The supposed essay is quite cleverly written with some convoluted logic, but is an urban legend. That's how come. Sorry for the confusing quantum leap. Just click on the "here" link the Doctor provided to read it, and all will be revealed. :)

User avatar
Slava
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 8040
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
Location: Finger Lakes, NY

Re: Yes

Postby Slava » Wed Jun 11, 2014 4:21 pm

Yes, that explains it quite clearly. I read only the part of the entry about the word, not the rest, and never even saw the extra bit. Silly me. Thanks for the explanation.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

wurdpurrson
Lexiterian
Posts: 168
Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2011 7:43 pm
Location: Olympic Peninsula, WA

Re: Yes

Postby wurdpurrson » Wed Jun 11, 2014 4:59 pm

i would say "No problem,", except that it's one of my bigger pet peeves. Instead: you are most welcome, sir.

bnjtokyo
Lexiterian
Posts: 384
Joined: Thu Jul 07, 2016 7:16 pm

Re: Yes

Postby bnjtokyo » Sun Jan 03, 2021 11:05 pm

Although the YouTube talk at the link is on the topic of "and" in Germanic languages, there is also discussing of "yes" starting at 3:53
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkFxJAucJwY&t=2s
Also notice that the old Norse/protogermanic word for "yes" still survives in the pronunciation of the informal English word "yeah."


Return to “Good Word Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 44 guests