yawn
/joːn/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.07 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To open the mouth widely and take a long, rather deep breath, often because one is tired or bored, and sometimes accompanied by pandiculation.
Intransitive verb
noun
The action of yawning; opening the mouth widely and taking a long, rather deep breath, often because one is tired or bored.
name
A surname.
Example Sentences
- "I could see my students yawning, so I knew the lesson was boring them."
- "[…] I found my self towards Evening, first empty and sickish at my Stomach, and nearer Night mightily enclin’d to yawning and sleepy […]"
- "c. 1773, John Trumbull, The Progress of Dulness, Exeter, New Hampshire: Henry Ranlet, 1794, Part 1, p. 19, And while above he spends his breath, The yawning audience nod beneath."
- "“I haven’t the least idea what I want to do,” he yawned."
- "“Oh,” Sutherland yawned, “I’m too old for this.”"
- "The canyon yawns as it has done for millions of years, and we stand looking, dumbstruck."
Etymology
Partly from Middle English yanen, yonen, yenen (“to yawn”), from Old English ġeonian, ġinian (“to yawn, gape”), from Proto-West Germanic *ginōn, from Proto-Germanic *ginōną (“to yawn”); and partly from Middle English gonen (“to gape, yawn”), from Old English gānian (“to yawn, gape”), from Proto-West Germanic *gainōn, from Proto-Germanic *gainōną (“to yawn, gape”); both from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰi-, *ǵʰeyh₁- (“to yawn, gape”). Cognate with North Frisian jåne (“to yawn”), Saterland Frisian jaanje, joanje (“to yawn”), Middle Dutch genen, ghenen (“to yawn”), German Low German jahnen (“to yawn”), German gähnen (“to yawn, gape”), dialectal Swedish gana (“to gape, gawk”), dialectal Norwegian gina (“to gape”). Compare also Old Church Slavonic зѣѭ (zějǫ) (Russian зи́нуть (zínutʹ), зия́ть (zijátʹ)), Greek χαίνω (khaínō)), Latin hiō, Tocharian A śew, Tocharian B kāy-, Lithuanian žioti, Sanskrit जेह् (jeh)
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: yanen, ġinian, *ginōn, *ginōną, gonen, gānian
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /joːn/
- British English: /jɔːn/