Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

yak shaving

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.00 in modern English

Syllables: yak shav-ing
IPA

24

Scrabble Score

10

Letters

2

Syllables

9

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Any apparently useless activity which, by allowing one to overcome intermediate difficulties, allows one to solve a larger problem.

Uncountable

noun

A less useful activity done consciously or subconsciously to procrastinate about a larger but more useful task.

Uncountable

Example Sentences

"I was doing a bit of yak shaving this morning, and it looks like it might have paid off."
"I looked at a reference manual for my car just to answer one question, but I spent the whole afternoon with my nose buried in it, just yak shaving, and got no work done on the car itself."
"For quotations using this term, see Citations:yak shaving."

Etymology

Coined by Carlin Vieri in his time at the MIT AI Lab (1993–1998) after viewing a segment at the end of "The Boy Who Cried Rat!" (1991), the sixth episode of the first season of The Ren and Stimpy Show. The segment featured "Yak Shaving Day", a Christmas-like holiday where participants watch for the shaven yak to float by in his enchanted canoe.

Usage

Uncountable

Phrases

when you're up to your neck in alligators, it's hard to remember that your initial objective was to drain the swamp

Frequently Paired Words

bikeshedding when you're up to your neck in alligators, it's hard to remember that your initial objective was to drain the swamp

Questions

What does yak shaving mean?: Any apparently useless activity which, by allowing one to overcome intermediate difficulties, allows one to solve a larger problem.
Where does yak shaving come from?: Coined by Carlin Vieri in his time at the MIT AI Lab (1993–1998) after viewing a segment at the end of "The Boy Who Cried Rat!" (1991), the sixth episode of the first season of The Ren and Stimpy Show. The segment featured "Yak Shaving Day", a Christmas-like holiday where participants watch for the shaven yak to float by in his enchanted canoe.

How to pronounce yak shaving

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