Pronounced: ZOOG-muh, noun
Notes: Familiarity: 0% – a new word for me
Yesterday’s word
The word yawp means
- to make a raucous noise; squawk
- clamor; complain
First usage
Our word came into English in the mid-1300s
Background / Comments
The background of our word is interesting to me. There was a Middle English verb yelpen (to boast; call out; yelp) whose past participle is yolpen, from which our word is derived. Reading the origin reminded me of the verb “help”, which used to have a past participle of “holpen”, which occurs a few times in the Authorized Version of the Bible. Our word can also be a noun, but it didn’t occur until around 400 years after the verb came into being. A final note: some references say that the second definition above is slang.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 