Yob (slang)

Yob is slang in the United Kingdom for a loutish, uncultured person.[1][2] In Australia and New Zealand, the word yobbo is more frequently used, with a similar although slightly less negative meaning.

Etymology

The word itself is a product of backslang, a process whereby new words are created by spelling or pronouncing existing words backwards. The word yob is thus derived from the word boy. It only began to acquire a derogatory connotation in the 1930s.[3]

In the 1961 British neo-noir gangster film "The Frightened City", co-starring Sean Connery, one of the characters mentions "a gang of young yobbos" who have been terrorising local businesses.

Popular Redlands, California landmark The Tartan created a drink called The Yob which is essentially a Manhattan shot in a 40 oz King Cobra malt liquor served in a paper bag.

"The Yob" is the title of a 1988 episode of The Comic Strip Presents..., in which the brain patterns of a pretentious music video director are those of a football hooligan.

"Yob" is also the title of a 1998 single by TISM, detailing the "ingredients" which go into making up a yob.

The Yobs and The Yobbettes are a cartoon series written for the satirical current affairs magazine Private Eye by Tony Husband since the late 1980s.[4]

UK band The Boys rearranged the "B" and the "Y" in their name and became The Yobs, releasing four singles and one album; 1980s Christmas Album. In this incarnation, the band members used the pseudonyms Noddy Oldfield, Ebenezer Polak, Kid Vicious and H. J. Bedwetter.

See also

Notes
  1. "In the dock – 18/03/10". www.lep.co.uk.
  2. Terry Victor; Tom Dalzell (Nov 27, 2014). The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (Google eBook). Routledge. p. 760. ISBN 978-0415212595. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  3. Etymology for the word yob at Online Etymology Dictionary
  4. Mike Storry; Peter Childs (2002). British Cultural Identities. Routledge. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-415-27860-7.

References
  • Burchfield, R.W. ed. The Oxford English Dictionary. (1987) ISBN 0-19-861211-7
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