Yahoo! Washington license plate
Dictionary.com defines yahoo in terms of Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. Stating that a yahoo is one of a race of brutes, a crude or coarse person.
But yahoo has also come to be an exclamation of joy and excitement.
If you’ve ever seen the movie City Slickers you’ll find the word used in terms of the latter definition. Remember? All these city folk are getting ready to ride out of the ranch, pushing a bunch of cattle through the wilderness on a journey they’re only slightly prepared for. Before they click their spurred ankles into the horses, they yell out in celebration “YaaaHooooooo!” Billy Crystal’s character does it twice because his first attempt wasn’t convincing enough.
Life is meant to be lived this way. It’s meant to be an exciting journey made all the more thrilling by our general lack of preparation for it’s twists and turns and unknown territory.
Yahoo! I say! YaaaaaHooooo!
