''Yo'' is a

slang A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of pa ...

interjection An interjection is a word or expression that occurs as an utterance on its own and expresses a spontaneous feeling, situation or reaction. It is a diverse category, with many different types, such as exclamations ''(ouch!'', ''wow!''), curses (''da ...

, commonly associated with North American English. It was popularized by the

Italian-American Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Italians, Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeastern United States, Northeast and industrial Midwestern United States, Midwestern ...

community in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, in the 1940s. Although often used as a greeting and often deployed at the beginning of a sentence, ''yo'' may also come at the end of a sentence and/or may be used to place emphasis on or to direct focus onto a particular individual, group, or issue at hand, or to gain the attention of another individual or group. It may also be used to express excitement, surprise, disbelief, enthusiasm, anger, or amazement.

Etymology and history

The interjection ''yo'' was first used in

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

. In addition to ''yo'', it was also sometimes written ''io''. Though the term may have been in use in an isolated manner in different contexts earlier in English, its current usage and popularity derives from its use in Philadelphia's

Italian American Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Italians, Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeastern United States, Northeast and industrial Midwestern United States, Midwestern ...

population in the twentieth century, which spread to other ethnic groups in the city, notably among Philadelphia

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

s, and later spread beyond Philadelphia. From the late twentieth century, it frequently appeared in

hip hop music Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music Music genre, genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African Americans, African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide r ...

and became associated with

African American Vernacular English African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban communities, by most working- and middle-class African Americans and some Black Canadians. Having its own unique grammatical, voca ...

Other uses

* In

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

, and possibly other cities, ''yo'' (or a word coincidentally identical to it) has become a

gender-neutral pronoun A third-person pronoun is a pronoun that refers to an entity other than the speaker or listener. Some languages, such as Slavic, with gender-specific pronouns have them as part of a grammatical gender system, a system of agreement where most o ...

. *Among the first times the word was used in mass media, "Yo" was seen in the title ''

Yo! MTV Raps ''Yo! MTV Raps'' is an American two-hour television music video program, which first aired on MTV Europe from 1987 to mid-1990s and on MTV, MTV US from August 1988 to August 1995. The American version of the program (created by Ted Demme and Pe ...

'', a popular American television hip-hop music program in the late 1980s.

References

{{reflist 1990s slang African-American slang American slang Culture of Philadelphia Greeting words and phrases Interjections Italian-American history Italian-American culture English words Hip-hop terminology