Etymology 1
As a greeting first attested in 1859, attested first as a cry of sailors and huntsmen (first attested in the 1400s; compare e.g. huzzah, giddyup). Originally from Middle English yo, io, ȝo, yeo, yaw, variant forms of ya, ye (“yes, yea”), from Old English ġēa (“yes, yea”), from Proto-Germanic *ja (“yes, thus, so”); or perhaps from Old English ēow (“Wo!, Alas!”, interjection). Compare Danish, Swedish, German, Norwegian jo (“yes (flexible meaning)”), Dutch jow (“hi, hey”) and Dutch jo (“hi, hey”). More at yea, ow, ew.
Modern popularity apparently dates from World War II (claimed to be a common response at roll calls; see definition 4), and then most intensely attested in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; it thence spread globally from American dominance of pop culture post-WWII.
Interjection
yo
- (slang) A greeting similar to hi.
- Synonyms: oi, wotcher
Yo Paulie! How's it going?
- (slang) An interjection similar to hey.
- Synonyms: ahoy, oi; see also Thesaurus:hey
Yo, check this out!
Check this out, yo!
- (slang) An expression of surprise or excitement.
Yo, that's crazy, but I don't remember asking.
2021 October 2, Mason Cannon, “Don't Feel Pressured To Declare Your Major Right Away”, in Study Breaks:I have quickly acclimated myself to the standard form of greeting on campus: "Oh hey what’s your name? … Yeah, nice to meet you, what're you studying? … Yo that’s sick!" A script to recite, nearly verbatim, 10 times a day or more.
- (military slang) Present! Here!
- Sergeant: Smith?
Private Smith: Yo!
- (chiefly African-American Vernacular) Emphatic conclusion to a statement.
- 2010, "Kafkaesque" (Breaking Bad TV series, season 3, episode 9)
- JESSE: That is messed up, yo.
Translations
greeting similar to hi
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- Finnish: moi (fi), jou (fi)
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- Indonesian: hoi (id), oi (id)
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- Japanese: よ (ja) (yo)
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- Malay: oi (ms), hoi
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- Polish: siema (pl)
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- Romanian: măi (ro), mă (ro), băi (ro), bă (ro)
- Russian: йо́у (ru) (jóu)
- Serbo-Croatian:
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interjection similar to hey
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- Finnish: hei (fi)
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- Hebrew: please add this translation if you can
- Hindi: please add this translation if you can
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- Icelandic: please add this translation if you can
- Indonesian: please add this translation if you can
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- Japanese: please add this translation if you can
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- Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
- Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
- Malay: please add this translation if you can
- Norwegian: please add this translation if you can
- Polish: ej (pl)
- Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
- Romanian: măi (ro), mă (ro), băi (ro), bă (ro)
- Russian: please add this translation if you can
- Serbo-Croatian:
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expression of surprise or excitement
- Afrikaans: please add this translation if you can
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- Catalan: please add this translation if you can
- Czech: please add this translation if you can
- Danish: please add this translation if you can
- Dutch: please add this translation if you can
- Finnish: joo (fi), jou (fi)
- French: please add this translation if you can
- German: please add this translation if you can
- Hebrew: please add this translation if you can
- Hindi: please add this translation if you can
- Hungarian: please add this translation if you can
- Icelandic: please add this translation if you can
- Indonesian: please add this translation if you can
- Italian: please add this translation if you can
- Japanese: please add this translation if you can
- Kazakh: please add this translation if you can
- Korean: please add this translation if you can
- Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
- Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
- Malay: please add this translation if you can
- Norwegian: please add this translation if you can
- Polish: ej (pl)
- Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
- Romanian: măi (ro), mă (ro), băi (ro), bă (ro)
- Russian: please add this translation if you can
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: please add this translation if you can
- Latin: please add this translation if you can
- Slovak: please add this translation if you can
- Slovene: please add this translation if you can
- Spanish: please add this translation if you can
- Swedish: please add this translation if you can
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Etymology 4
From Russian ё (jo).
Noun
yo (plural yos)
- The letter Ё, ё.
Etymology 6
From irregular romanization of the standard Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 龠 (yuè).
Pronoun
yo m sg or f sg
- First-person singular nominative pronoun; I
See also
More information nominative, disjunctive ...
Close
Aragonese personal pronouns
- The forms shown in the table are the most widespread ones. Some varieties use different forms:
- nusotros/as (Ansotano, Cheso, Somontanos) and nusaltros/as (Benasquese and Belsetán).
- usté(s) (Benasquese), ustet(z) (Ansotano), vustet(z) (Tensino, Somontanos)
- vusotros/as (Ansotano, Cheso, Somontanos) and vusaltros/as (Benasquese and Belsetán).
- ell(s) (Benasquese) and er(s) (Belsetán).
- era(s) (Belsetán).
- mos (Ribagorçan). Before third-person pronouns and the adverbial pronoun en the contracted form mo' is used.
- li(s) (Cheso, Tensino).
- el (Ribagorçan). The contracted form l' is used before verbs beginning with vowel sounds and 'l after pronouns ending in vowels and no (“no, not”).
- es, els (Ribagorçan). These forms are contracted to 's and 'ls after pronouns ending in vowels and no (“no, not”).
- The contracted forms are used before verbs beginning with vowel sounds.
- In Ribagorçan the contracted form to' is used before third-person pronouns and the adverbial pronoun en.
References
- “yo”, in Aragonario, diccionario castellano–aragonés (in Spanish)
Pronoun
yo
- I (first-person singular pronoun)
Pronoun
yo
- I (1st person nominative pronoun)
See also
More information Person, Number ...
Person |
Number |
Direct (ang) |
Indirect (ng) |
Oblique (sa) |
First |
singular |
yo |
conmigo |
de mio |
plural inclusive |
kita |
kanaton |
de aton |
plural exclusive |
kami |
kanamon |
de amon |
Second |
singular |
tu, usted, vos |
contigo, con usted, con vos |
de tuyo |
plural |
kamo, ustedes, vosotros |
kaninyo, con ustedes |
de inyo, de ustedes |
Third |
singular |
ele |
con ele |
de suyo |
plural |
sila, ellos, esos |
kanila, con ellos |
de ila |
Close
Chavacano personal pronouns
Interjection
yo
- (slang) yo
2016, Lisbeth Zornig, Mikael Lindholm, Bundfald, Art People, →ISBN:
Interjection
yo
- (slang) yo (informal greeting, interjection similar to hey)
Article
yo pl
- the
Usage notes
This word is only used in its article sense when it modifies a plural noun.
Etymology 1
From ayo.
Interjection
yo
- Short for ayo.