Yas (slang)

Yas /jɑːs/ is a playful or non-serious slang term equivalent to the excited or celebratory use of the interjection "yes!", carrying LGBT or queer cultural associations. 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).
Look up yass in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

History of the term

The earliest use of the spelling 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] However, this usage is not the modern slang one. Similarly, yass was used by the character Dean Moriarty (based on Neal Cassady) in Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel On the Road.[6][7]

Yas, with its currently popular meaning and various spelling variants, 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 LGBT/queer community in the 1990s,[9] remaining current into the present.[3] 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 its use by White or non-LGBT people 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 (19 August 2007). "On the Road: The Original Scroll - Jack Kerouac - Books - Review". The New York Times. 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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