by thoumother March 31, 2018
The words yea and yay are homophones, meaning they are pronounced the same. Yea is a somewhat specialized word (“yes—used in oral voting”) most often used in a spoken context, so I would expect that many people would not realize there are two spellings for two different meanings.
Using the spelling yay for yea is therefore an eggcorn. Here's a discussion of it at the Eggcorn Database forum.
There were no examples of yay being used for yea at the Corpus of Contemporary American English, so it doesn't seem to be an emerging usage that is getting into the kinds of edited texts used to populate that corpus. On the other hand, there are plenty of Google results, including some on major, presumably professionally-edited sites, like ABC News and New York Magazine. Interestingly, a large portion of the top Google results were related to fashion.
How embarrassing for them: anyone who knows that there are two spellings for the two words would instantly identify yay for yea as an error.
Even the normally quite liberal and descriptivist Merriam-Webster dictionary has no entry at all for ‘yay’. Only Collins English Dictionary has an entry for yay, and it’s only for the exclamatory sense.
So, yes, it does appear that this substitution is an emerging usage, but no authorities at all countenance it just yet, and given that there is an unimpeachable substitute, I don’t recommend that anyone use it.
Using the spelling yay for yea is therefore an eggcorn. Here's a discussion of it at the Eggcorn Database forum.
There were no examples of yay being used for yea at the Corpus of Contemporary American English, so it doesn't seem to be an emerging usage that is getting into the kinds of edited texts used to populate that corpus. On the other hand, there are plenty of Google results, including some on major, presumably professionally-edited sites, like ABC News and New York Magazine. Interestingly, a large portion of the top Google results were related to fashion.
How embarrassing for them: anyone who knows that there are two spellings for the two words would instantly identify yay for yea as an error.
Even the normally quite liberal and descriptivist Merriam-Webster dictionary has no entry at all for ‘yay’. Only Collins English Dictionary has an entry for yay, and it’s only for the exclamatory sense.
So, yes, it does appear that this substitution is an emerging usage, but no authorities at all countenance it just yet, and given that there is an unimpeachable substitute, I don’t recommend that anyone use it.
"Yea" as in "yea or nay" is the correct spelling of the word most people type "yay" not "yay or nay"
by Anonymous19831983 December 10, 2016
A term Quagmire uses when he gets mad or disappointed.
2 Funny words with the first letters swapped. DO NOT swap them back.
This is uncensored in Roblox so when you want to win an argument against an 8 year old use this term to shut them up instantly.
2 Funny words with the first letters swapped. DO NOT swap them back.
This is uncensored in Roblox so when you want to win an argument against an 8 year old use this term to shut them up instantly.
Use 1:
Peter Griffin: Lois just said she does not feel sexual attraction towards you.
Glenn Quagmire: Nay Gigger!
Use 2:
Friend 1: Haha nay gigger.
Friend 2: Isn't that just the n word and gay with the first letters swapped?
Friend 1: No, you nay gigger.
Use 3:
Retarded kid: noob hacker bad
You: Nay Gigger
Retarded kid: *stunned*
Peter Griffin: Lois just said she does not feel sexual attraction towards you.
Glenn Quagmire: Nay Gigger!
Use 2:
Friend 1: Haha nay gigger.
Friend 2: Isn't that just the n word and gay with the first letters swapped?
Friend 1: No, you nay gigger.
Use 3:
Retarded kid: noob hacker bad
You: Nay Gigger
Retarded kid: *stunned*
by onlyhumanafterall April 02, 2023
used in a situation where sum1 says or dus sumthing wrong or stupid such as chris lukin at another guys crotch "deh nay"
by ronaldmcd June 01, 2006
by Don Silver November 02, 2007
by Natalia<333 November 07, 2021
by cohen50 December 08, 2008