yoink (yoingk) — interjection: a phrase spoken while taking an item without permission of its owner, esp. to call attention to the act. verb: quickly take an item without permission of its owner, esp. in a joking manner.I remember a friend in college discussing how her roommate completely failed to understand how to use the interjection yoink. I’m sure the friend had watched The Simpsons a few times, as anyone my age would have had ample occasion to do, but I wouldn’t have pegged her as a Simpsons fan. And yet here she was, trying to explain a concept that is widely considered to have originated on the show as if speaking the word yoink while stealing were as a natural a thing to do as, say, wincing when nails meet chalkboard or giggling when you watch a dog trip and fall down.
I don’t, however, remember thinking anything was strange about the alleged first yoink, spoken by Homer in the fourth season episode “Duffless.” (Keep in mind that it aired on February 18, 1993, when I was in fifth grade and didn’t know anything and essentially had to let The Simpsons teach me about the world. I kind of just took anything The Simpsons said as gospel and then repeated in an effort to make people think I had a sense of humor.) In the episode, Homer has just managed to withstand thirty days without a beer and decides to celebrate this fact by going to Moe’s. Here’s the dialogue, as recorded by The Simpsons Archive:
Marge: Mmmm… You don’t have to start drinking right away. I was thinking we could go for a bike ride.And that sound effect has been reverberating through history ever since — on subsequent Simpsons episodes, as this series spanning list notes, but also in non-animated life. I’ve used it. I’ve had it used against me. And I guess I didn’t think much of it until I stumbled across the Wiktionary entry for yoink and noted that it credits Simpsons writer George Meyer with being the first person to use it on record. I’m happy if that’s the case, though, and I’m gladdened by the prospect of people announcing their every act of thievery.
Homer: But Marge, the barflies are expecting me. Larry, and Barney, and that guy who calls me Bill.
Marge: But you look better, you don't sweat when you eat any more, and look — [holds up a wad of cash] You’ve saved more than a hundred dollars. I found it in your pants.
Homer: [snatches money] Yoink!
The Simpsons, by the way, is also credited with popularizing meh, the ultimate all-purpose non-committal word, as well as a slew of other terms that have yet to make it into dictionaries. Also of interest: The blog HeiDeas has been faithfully cataloguing linguistic jokes on the show since 2005.
Previous words of the week:
- adulterine, ambeer
- barrack, bissextile, breastsummer
- catholicon, cecaelia, couvade, cranberry morpheme, cummingtonite
- deasil, decussate
- eidolon, epeolatry, epopt, espalier
- fabiform, fissilingual
- gallinipper, grandgore
- hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia, honorificabilitudinitatibus
- itaiitai, ignivomous
- jamais vu, jehu, jumentous
- kaffir, kakopygian, knipperdollin
- leman, lemniscate, limnovore, linsey-woolsey, longicorn
- malacia, milt, mongo
- nihilartikel, nobiliary particle
- ooglification, orchidectomy, ordured, orf
- pareidolia, petrichor, pismire, pong
- quacksalver, quagga, qualtagh, quidnunc
- ronion, roynish, rubirosa
- salmagundi, scrutator, seneschal, shebang, sinople
- tergiversate, thon, tiffin, tittery-whoppet, toby, tyro
- ucalegon, ultramontane
- veneficial, verdigris, vespertilionine, vinegeroon
- williwaw, witzelsucht
- xenodocheionology, xyster
- yazoo, ypsiliform
- zanjero, zenzizenzizenzic, zugzwang
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