yiff

English

Etymology

Yiff was part of a range of onomatopoeic words from a pseudolanguage called Foxish used by the furry role-playing community, ostensibly created by a user named LittleFox or Foxen around 1990. Other terms used by this community included yip, yerf, yaff, yarf, growf, and growlf. Yiff originally meant yes or an exuberant hello. According to LittleFox, the sexual connotations of yiff were influenced by yipp (derived from yip), which originally held these sexual connotations. By 1992, yiff had been assigned a meaning of a sexual proposition, and in modern use within the furry subculture, yiff exclusively refers either to sex between anthropomorphic animals, or pornographic depictions thereof.

Pronunciation

• enPR: yĭf, IPA^(key): /jɪf/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪf

Interjection

yiff

1. Onomatopeia representing the bark of a fox (especially while mating).
2. (informal) Used to express happiness or to state that something is sexually appealing.

Translations

bark of a fox

• Dutch: woef (nl), waf (nl), blaffen (nl)
• Esperanto: jelp
• German: bellen (de), kläffen (de)
• Icelandic: gagg n
• Japanese: こんこん (ja)
• Portuguese: au (pt), auau
• Spanish: yip m or m pl or f or f pl

Noun

yiff (usually uncountable, plural yiffs)

1. (slang, informal) The bark of a fox.
2. (slang, informal) Sexual intercourse, especially between furries (fictional anthropomorphic animal characters or members of the community surrounding their celebration).
   • 1996 July 14, j.serdy, “RFC: A Beginner's Guide to TinySex on the FurryMuck”, in alt.fan.furry‎^[2] (Usenet):

     FurryMuck yiffs are like real-life yiffs - there is a time and place for everything.

3. (slang, informal) Pornography of or involving furries.

   Do you draw yiff?

Translations

furry pornography

• Esperanto: ĵifo
• Finnish: turriporno
• German: Yiff
• Hungarian: yiff
• Japanese: イッフ (iffu)
• Russian: йифф (ru) (jiff)
• Spanish: yiff m
• Ukrainian: їф m (yif)

Verb

yiff (third-person singular simple present yiffs, present participle yiffing, simple past and past participle yiffed)

1. (intransitive, slang, informal) To bark as or similar to a fox.
2. (ambitransitive, slang, informal) Of animals, especially foxes, or furries, To have sexual intercourse; to mate.
   • 1997 October 17, StarChaser, “What to genocide”, in rec.games.roguelike.nethack‎^[3] (Usenet), message-ID <3448af39.75668367@169.132.11.13>:

     Monsters snicker at me, succubi refuse to be seen with me, my dog tries to yiff my leg, shopkeepers say ‘No shirt, no shoes, no service’.

   • 1997 September 22, Locandez, “Hypothetical Question #3: acting natural”, in alt.lifestyle.furry‎^[4] (Usenet), message-ID <na.dab87347cd.a40040lyndale@argonet.co.uk>:

     And even if foxes are allowed to yiff more than once, I’d still have to wait for the vixen to come into heat.

   • 1997 September 23, MegaDog the Nettweiler, “Hypothetical Question #3: acting natural”, in alt.lifestyle.furry‎^[5] (Usenet), message-ID <1d3DsMAQZ$J0Ew2R@canismajor.demon.co.uk>:

     Well, i’ve witnessed male foxes queueing up to yiff one of my local vixens… repeatedly!

   • 2012, Joanne Reay, Romeo Spikes:

     I mean, the urge to yiff is a pretty weird thing to admit to. Not something you can just drop into conversation. But look at them, hundreds of them, all gathered together in a Vegas hotel, exchanging information and experiences, the knowledge of their rare urges ever growing.

   • 2017, Joe Strike, Furry Nation: The True Story of America's Most Misunderstood Subculture, →ISBN:

     We can tell them how we never stop yiffing and we met at a Starbucks while wearing our suits.

3. (intransitive, transitive, slang, informal) To propose cybersex to someone.

Derived terms

• yiffer
• yiffy

Translations

to bark like a fox

• Esperanto: jelpi

of furries, to have sex

• Esperanto: ĵifi
• Japanese: イッフする (iffu-suru)
• Spanish: yiffear
• Swedish: yiffa
• Ukrainian: їфати (jifaty), їфатися (jifatysja)

to have cybersex

• Esperanto: ĵifi
• Japanese: イッフする (iffu-suru)
• Spanish: yiffear

Further reading

• “yiff”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “yiff”, in Urban Dictionary, launched 1999.
• "Yiff", A Furry Glossary
• Definition of "yiff", Furtopia

Anagrams

• FYFI, iffy

Middle English

Alternative forms

• ȝiff

Etymology 1

From Old English ġif.

Conjunction

yiff

1. if
   • c. 1438, John Lydgate, edited by Henry Bergen, Fall of Princes, page 384, line 2020:

     Yiff ther was lak, thou woldest crie & pleyne. / Remembre theron, and at me nat disdeyne

     If there was lack, you would cry and complain, / Remember that, and do not me disdain.

   • c. 1438, John Lydgate, edited by Henry Bergen, Fall of Princes, page 339, line 384:

     And yiff that trust with pryncis wil nat tarie, / Litil merueile thouh the peeple varie […]

     And if that trust with princes will not tarry, / Little marvel though the people vary […]

   • c. 1386–1388 (date written)​, Geffray Chaucer [i.e., Geoffrey Chaucer], “The Legende of Good Women: The Legende of Dido Quene of Cartage”, in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London: […] Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], published 1542, →OCLC, lines 1039–1041:

     So yonge so lusty with hire eyen glade / That yiff that god that hevene and erthe made / Wolde haue a love For beaute and goodnesse / And womanhede and trouthe and semelynesse

     So young and lusty with her eyes glad, / that if that god that heaven and earth made, / would have a love for beauty and goodness, / and womanhood and truth and seemliness

Etymology 2

From Old English giefan.

Verb

yiff

1. Alternative form of yiven
   • 1393, Jean d'Arras, Roman de Melusine, page 154, line 2571:

     So god be pleased, monke shall ye noght be, / Another ordre to you yiff I shall, / A knyght will you mak of full hye degre / As your brethren ben named ryght roiall.

     God willing, a monk you'll not be, / Another order to you give I shall, / A knight you'll become of the highest degree, / Just as your brethren are named rightly royal.