yiff

See also: YIFF

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “We need quality sources for these claims.”)Yiff was part of a range of onomatopoeic words that form a pseudo-language used by the furry role-playing community: yiff, yip, yerf, yaff, yarf, growf, and growlf (in order from most positive connotations to most negative connotations). Yiff meant yes or an exuberant hello! Later, yiff was assigned a meaning of a sexual proposition, a meaning that had previously been assigned to yipp (a coarse form of yip). In modern use within the furry community, yiff almost exclusively refers either to sex between anthropomorphic animals, or pornographic depictions thereof.

Pronunciation

(General American) enPR: yĭf, IPA^(key): /jɪf/
Audio (AU) (file)
Rhymes: -ɪf

Interjection

yiff

(onomatopoeic, apocryphal) Representing the bark of a fox (especially while mating).
(of a person, informal) To express happiness, to state that something is sexy.

Noun

yiff (usually uncountable, plural yiffs)

(slang, informal) Sex, especially between furries (fictional anthropomorphic animal characters, and/or members of the community surrounding their celebration).
"FurryMuck yiffs are like real-life yiffs - there is a time and place for everything." —
(slang, informal) Pornography of or involving furries.
Do you draw yiff?

Translations

sound a fox makes

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

furry pornography

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

Verb

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

(transitive, intransitive, slang, informal) To have sex, to mate (said of animals, especially foxes, or people dressed up as animals).
- "He's a furry fan and he's okay,
  He MUCKs all night and he yiffs all day."
  —
- "Well, according to his sig, he waits until it moves before he yiffs it." —
- 1997 October 17, StarChaser, “What to genocide”, in rec.games.roguelike.nethack, 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, 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, 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.
(transitive and intransitive, slang, informal) To propose cybersex to someone.

Derived terms

yiffer
yiffy

Translations

(of a person) to bark like a fox

Esperanto: jelpi

to have sex

Dutch: seks hebben
Esperanto: ĵifi
French: baiser (fr)
German: vögeln (de)
Japanese: イッフする (iffu-suru)
Spanish: yiffear

to cybersex, to have cybersex, to sext

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

References

"Yiff", A Furry Glossary
Definition of "yiff", Furtopia
LittleFox’s own explanation of the etymology of "Yiff", Everything2, accessed on 2005-03-30 (bottom of page)

Anagrams

FYFI, iffy

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English ġif.

Conjunction

yiff

if
- c. 1438, John Lydgate Fall of Princes:
  Yiff ther was lak, thou woldest crie & pleyne.
- c. 1438, John Lydgate Fall of Princes:
  And yiff that trust with pryncis wil nat tarie,
  Litil merueile thouh the peeple varie […]
- c. 1385-1386, Geoffrey Chaucer, Legend of Good Women:
  […] That yiff that god that hevene and erthe made
  Wolde haue a love For beaute and goodness
  And womanhede and trouthe and semelynesse […]
  (please add an English translation of this quote)

Etymology 2

From Old English giefan.

Verb

yiff

Alternative form of yiven
- 1393, Jean d’Arras Roman de Melusine:
  Another ordre to you yiff I shall,
  A knyght will you mak of full hye degre
  As your brethren ben named ryght roiall.