yo-ho-ho
/ˈjoʊhoʊhoʊ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.81 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
3
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
intj
A cry associated with pirates and seafaring, originally a repetitive chant intended to synchronize workers performing some collective physical labour, such as hauling on a rope.
Example Sentences
- "How happy, my comrades, how happy are we, / While drawing fish from the dark rolling sea, / While drawing fish from the dark rolling sea. / Yo ho, yo ho, yo ho, ho, ho!"
- "We're rolling along, rolling along, / As over the sea we go, / As over the sea we go, / And our anchor we heave, while we're singing our song. / Sing yo! ho! cheery men, ho! / Sing yo! cheery men, ho!"
- "The endless ballad had come to an end at last, and the whole diminished company about the camp fire had broken into the chorus I had heard so often:— / "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest— / Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! / Drink and the devil had done for the rest— / Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!""
- "Where the Ships sail down / To the Western Sun / Alone in the Ocean Blue, / Yo ho ho! Yo ho ho! / Yo ho ho! Yo ho ho!"
- "'With a yo ho ho and we'll raise the flag, / We've lots of cake in a paper bag. / We've six watermelons and pizza too. / It's a pirate's life for me and you!' / The sound of singing—well, something like singing, anyway—floated up from the creek."
- "When Asha threw the hair clip, the pirates jumped like flying fish to grab it. Pirate Joe leaped the highest and caught it. "Yo ho ho! It's mine!" he said."
Etymology
The term was popularized by a (fictional) pirate shanty in the novel Treasure Island (1883) by Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) – see the quotation – but appears in earlier songs of sailors. The term is possibly a variant of yo-he-ho, apparently a short form of yo-heave-ho (“a repetitive call made to synchronize workers performing some collective physical labour, such as hauling on a rope”).
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈjoʊhoʊhoʊ/
- British English: /ˈjəʊhəʊhəʊ/