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1911
- New York Times (March 24, 1911) ""Yawp," "Yoppox," "Faryawp," "Yawpists," "Yawpers," "Jang," "Hellogram"" A letter to the editor. The first of four letters in a series. p 10. [NYTIMES]
from New York Times
"Yawp," "Yoppox," "Faryawp," "Yawpists," "Yawpers," "Jang," "Hellogram"
by Ellis Parker Butler
To the Editor of The New York Times:
May I suggest as this most appropriate word descriptive of a telephone message the verb "to yawp"? It is short, clear, and thoroughly describes the act. At the moment any ordinary human being takes a telephone receiver in his hand he -- or she -- drops all yawps at the unlucky person at the other end of what I should call the "yawp wire." As one who has yawped and has been yawped at, I recommend the verb "to yawp."
The telephone instrument could have no fitter name than "yawp-box," which, following the example of "cup-board," would soon become "yoppox." A long distance message would be a "faryawp," and subscribers and users would be "yawpers." The central girls would be "yawpists." To ask any one to get off the wire you would say, "Unyawp there, you yawper!"
At the same time I would suggest that "ring up" be supplanted by "jang," as properly suggestive of nerves put on edge by the jangle of the telephone bell. Instead of the complex "ring me up on the telephone" we would then have the neat and pretty phrase, "jang my yawp," or the still simpler "yawp me."
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