Yob (slang)

Yob is slang in the United Kingdom for a loutish, uncultured person.[1][2] In Australia and New Zealand, the word yobbo is more frequently used, with a similar although slightly less negative meaning.

Etymology

The word itself is a product of backslang, a process whereby new words are created by spelling or pronouncing existing words backwards. The word yob is thus derived from the word boy. It only began to acquire a derogatory connotation in the 1930s.[3]

"The Yob" is the title of a 1988 episode of The Comic Strip Presents..., in which the brain patterns of a pretentious music video director are those of a football hooligan.

"Yob" is also the title of a 1998 single by TISM, detailing the "ingredients" which go into making up a yob.

The Yobs and The Yobbettes are a cartoon series written for the satirical current affairs magazine Private Eye by Tony Husband since the late 1980s.[4]

See also

Notes
  1. "In the dock – 18/03/10". www.lep.co.uk.
  2. Terry Victor; Tom Dalzell (Nov 27, 2014). The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (Google eBook). Routledge. p. 760. ISBN 978-0415212595. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  3. Etymology for the word yob at Online Etymology Dictionary
  4. Mike Storry; Peter Childs (2002). British Cultural Identities. Routledge. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-415-27860-7.

References
  • Burchfield, R.W. ed. The Oxford English Dictionary. (1987) ISBN 0-19-861211-7
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.