Yas (slang)

Yas /jɑːs/ is a playful or non-serious slang term equivalent to the excited or celebratory use of the interjection "yes!" Yas was added to Oxford Dictionaries in 2017, and defined as a form of exclamation "expressing great pleasure or excitement".[1] Yas was defined by Oxygen's Scout Durwood as "a more emphatic 'yes' often paired with 'queen'."[2] Yas can alternatively be spelled with any number of A's and S's in order to increase the grade of excitement[2] or add more emphasis.[3] In other words, the exclamation often appears in the form "Yas, queen!" and with spelling variants such as "yaas!" or "yaasss!"[4]

For other uses, see Yas (disambiguation).

History of the term

The earliest use of 'yas' quoted in the OED is from George Colman the Elder's play Spleen in 1776: "Rubrick. We'll go in, and prepare the advertisement. Machoof. Yas, we mun invastigate its axcellent faculties."[5]

Yass was used by the character Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassady) in Jack Kerouac's On the Road, published in 1957.[6][7]

Yas, and its spelling variants, commonly circulate in LGBT vernacular today.[3] Yas, with its currently popular meaning, has roots in late 1980s ball culture, a predominantly Black and Latino LGBT subculture in the United States,[8] and was adopted by the wider queer community in the 1990s.[9] The term was used during performances by drag queens, as an expression of encouragement and support, and can be heard (pronounced [jæːs]) in the 1990 documentary film Paris Is Burning, which chronicles New York City's ball culture.[8][10]

The expression entered the general public lexicon in the 2010s after being used by a Lady Gaga fan expressing his admiration for the singer's appearance in a viral video,[11] and by Ilana Glazer in Broad City[8] (there pronounced [jɑːs] and [jʌs]).[12] By 2016, yas had spurred discussion as to whether it constituted cultural appropriation.[8]

The verb yassify was coined in 2021 as part of an internet meme. To "yassify" an image is to apply AI-based beauty filters to an extreme extent, with humorous results. Image yassification became a meme on Twitter and other social media, particularly when applied to incongruous subjects such as historic works of art, or a frame of actress Toni Collette screaming in the horror film Hereditary.[3][13]

See also

References
  1. Hafner, Josh (February 27, 2017). "'Yas,' 'squad goals' and 'sausage fest' added to Oxford Dictionaries". USA Today. Gannett Company. ISSN 0734-7456. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
  2. Durwood, Scout (July 12, 2016). "7 Pop Culture Phrases That Were Appropriated from Black and Gay Culture". Oxygen. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
  3. O'Neill, Shane (2021-11-24). "What Does It Mean to 'Yassify' Anything?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-11-27.
  4. "yaasss", The Free Dictionary, retrieved 2021-12-04
  5. Entry 'yas', Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 8 February 2022
  6. Sante, Luc. "On the Road: The Original Scroll - Jack Kerouac - Books - Review". Retrieved 2018-08-02.
  7. Kerouac, Jack (1957). On the Road.
  8. Amatulli, Jenna (July 19, 2016). "Here's the Real Origin of the Word 'Yas'". HuffPost. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
  9. Carey-Mahoney, Ryan (August 24, 2016). "'RuPaul's Drag Race' is more than a TV show. It's a movement". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. OCLC 2269358. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
  10. Marine, Brooke (October 30, 2017). "Frank Ocean Vogued the Night Away with Tyler, the Creator and Joanne the Scammer at His 30th Birthday Party". W. Condé Nast. ISSN 0162-9115. OCLC 1781845. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
  11. YAS GAGA / Lady Gaga in New York City 08.21
  12. Broad City: YAS Supercut
  13. "'Yassification' is a photo-editing trend with a satiric twist to it". www.telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 2021-12-04.
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