yagger

[Dut. jager =huntsman, a driver.] [YAGER.] A wanderer about the country; a traveling peddler. ( Scotch.) ya-hoô, s . [A word of no etymology.] A name given by Swift in his Gulliver's Travels to a race of brutes, described as having human forms and vicious and degraded propensities. They were subject to the Houyhnhnms, or horses endowed with human reason. Hence, the term is applied to a rough, low, boorish, or uneducated person. "The pa ionate exclamation of a mere yahoo of a stable-boy." -Graves: Spiritual Quixote , bk. iv., ch. x. Also used adjectively. "That hated animal, a yahoo squire." -Warton : New market , 170. Yaj-ur, *Yaj-ush, s . [Sansc. yaj to sacrifice.] (See etym. and compound.) Yajur-Veda, s. pound.) yacca-wood, s. Bot. & Comm.: The wood of Podocarp us coriacea, used in the West Indies as an ornamental timber for cabinet work. xyş-ma-lō-bi-ŭm, s. [Gr. xysma =a filing, a shaving, and lobos a legume, a pod. So named Dut.gaan, gaen =to go. ( Skeat . )] A decked pleasure because the fruits are covered with scales.] Bot.: A genus of Asclepiadacese. Erect perennial shrubs with large flowers in umbels; corolla bell shaped, with spreading segments, staminal corona at the top of the tube of filaments, consisting of ten parts in a single series. Known species eight or nine, all but one from the Cape of Good Hope. The remaining one, Xysmalobium heudelotianum , is from Sene gambia, where its root is eaten by the negroes. X. padi folium is cultivated in English gardens. xyst, xst-os, xst-us, s . [Lat. xystus , from Gr. rystos , from zyo =to scrape, from its smooth and polished floor.] Anc. Arch .: A sort of covered portico or open court of great length in proportion to the width, in which the athletes performed their exercises. xs-tarch, s . [ Gr.xystos , and archō =to rule.] Gr. Antiq.: An A then i an officer who presided over the gymnastic exercises of the xyst (q. v.). xs-tër, s . [Gr., from xy =to rub, to scrape.] Surg.: An instrument for scraping bones. THE twenty-fifth letter of the English alphabet is, in modern English, both a consonant and a vowel. It is taken from the Latin, into which language it was adopted from the Greek (v) or upsilon. It some Anglo Saxon character which is sup posed to have a sound resembling that of the French u or German ü. I. At the beginning of syllables, and when followed by a vowel, y is a palatal consonant, being formed by bringing the middle of the tongue in contact with the palate, nearly in the position to which the ghard brings it. Hence, the A. S. hardg has often been softened to y, as in day =A. S. dag , may=A. S. mag, . In words of Romance origin y frequently represents: 1. French- ie Lat. -ia , as in barony , company , copy , jolly , family , memory , victory , . yacht ( ch silent), *yatcht, subst . [Dutch jagt (formerly spelt jacht ), so named from its speed, from Dut. jagten (formerly jachtin )=to speed, to hunt; jagt (formerly jacht ) = a hunting, from jagen = to hunt or chase deer, hares, .; cogn. with Ger. jagen to hunt; probably allied to Ger. jähe ; O. H. Ger.gáhi=quick, sudden, rash; Ger. gehen to go; ve el; a light and elegantly fitted-up ve el, used either for racing or for pleasure trips, or as an official or state ve el to convey royal personages or Government officials from place to place. The rigs are various, and many pleasure yachts now have steam power as an acce ory, or for use dur ing calms. Racing yachts are built with very fine lines, enormous spars and sails, and have the hull deeply ballasted, thus sacrificing everything to speed.