Ultimately from Arabic يَعْنِي (yaʕnī, “[he/she/it] means”), from عَنَى (ʕanā).
yaʼni
- (transitive) [he/she/it] means
yaʼni
- (adverbial, conjunctive, prepositional, or adjectival) in other words, actually, namely, to wit, kind of, somewhat, id est, that is, meaning, you know
- (filler) er, so, uh, well