Pronounced: SPRAT-uhl, noun/verb
Notes: It doesn’t mean to talk pointlessly with a lisp (heh)
Yesterday’s word
The word yips is “a state of nervous tension affecting an athlete (such as a golfer) in the performance of a crucial action”
First usage
Our word came into English in the 1960s
Background / Comments
I don’t watch golf, where our word is usually used. The normal phrase I’ve heard in similar situations is “to fail in a clutch situation”. The origin is not certain — not even if our word has any relationship with “yip” (the quick bark of a dog).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 