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Comment by kortex | Hacker News Reader

As I am solidly a millenial, I guess I'll take it that I'm keeping hip to the lingo of kids these days :)

My definition of "Yeet" is to fling/throw/hurl something, typically with great vigor. Urban Dictionary defines it as "To discard an item at a high velocity." Derives from the Latin Iacio, From Proto-Italic jakjō‎, from Proto-Indo-European (H)yeh₁-‎ ("to throw, let go"). JK I just made that up, but it's actually plausible.

Never heard the "exclamation of excitement" definition.

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From another milliennial: the only detail I'd add is that "yeet" is less about pure force and more about the impulsive, imprecise nature of the action. Throwing a basketball into a hoop wouldn't be described as "yeeting", except perhaps if it were by complete accident.

Right, if precision is involved, it's "LeBron".

Yeet is for distance/power. Kobe is for accuracy/precision.

Also worth mentioning that the past tense of yeet is widely agreed to be yote or yoted as in:

"The first empty soda can was yote many moons ago"

"widely agreed upon" is debated.

According to Wiktionary:

"yeeted

1. simple past tense and past participle of yeet" [1]

Worth noting there is a fair amount of discussion on whether the past tense is "yeeted" or "yote", or even "yaught": https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Talk:yeet

[1]: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yeeted#English

(I do think it would be pretty funny if the past tense ended up as "yote", though.)

The ablaut conjugation yeet/yote/yitten is hilarious and gets my vote but it seems like yeeted will win out.

I particularly enjoy “yote” as it sounds so formal/medieval.

Nahh it's definitely yeeted.

I've never seen a zoomer say yote. Yeeted on the other hand...

I've seen and heard yoted many times before, because double past tensening a word adds comedic effect.

> Derives from the Latin Iacio, From Proto-Italic jakjō‎, from Proto-Indo-European (H)yeh₁-‎ ("to throw, let go"). JK I just made that up, but it's actually plausible.

I think you're way overestimating the people who come up with new words :P

A derivation from iacio via jettison doesn't sound too implausible.

Hahaha I see, thanks. It reminds me of defenestration!

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