yawn
pronunciation
How to pronounce yawn in British English:
UK [jɔːn]
How to pronounce yawn in American English:
US [jɔːn]
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- Noun:
- an involuntary intake of breath through a wide open mouth; usually triggered by fatigue or boredom
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- Verb:
- utter a yawn, as from lack of oxygen or when one is tired
- be wide open
Word Origin
- yawn
- yawn: [OE] Yawn goes back ultimately to the Indo-European base *ghei-, *ghi-, which also produced Greek kháskein ‘gape’ (a close relative of English chasm [17]) and Latin hiāre ‘gape, yawn’ (source of English hiatus [16]). The base passed into prehistoric Germanic as *gai-, *gi-, whose surviving descendants are German gähnen, Dutch geeuwen, and English yawn. English gap and gape probably come from an extension of the same Indo-European base.=> chasm, gap, gape, hiatus
- yawn (v.)
- c. 1300, yenen, yonen, from Old English ginian, gionian "open the mouth wide, yawn, gape," from Proto-Germanic *gin- (cognates: Old Norse gina "to yawn," Dutch geeuwen, Old High German ginen, German gähnen "to yawn"), from PIE *ghai- "to yawn, gape" (cognates: Old Church Slavonic zijajo "to gape," Lithuanian žioju, Czech zivati "to yawn," Greek khainein, Latin hiare "to yawn, gape," Sanskrit vijihite "to gape, be ajar"). Modern spelling is from 16c. Related: Yawned; yawning.
- yawn (n.)
- "act of yawning," 1690s, from yawn (v.). Meaning "boring thing" is attested from 1889.
Example
- 1. A yawn is more contagious than any of these .
- 2. Err , don 't people yawn because they 're bored and / or tired ?
- 3. But not everyone is susceptible to the yawn contagion .
- 4. In fact I can feel a yawn coming on now .
- 5. Excuse me while I stifle a yawn .