Etymologies
- Unknown. First seen in print around 1960. One theory is that it comes from donkey's years; another is that it is an initialism from years, months, weeks. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“I havent been on BP in yonks and now that my computer is back in working mode BP decides to not upload on my computer .. aaarggghhhh!!”
$38 Million for BlackPlanet.com MiGente.com, and AsianAve.com « The Paradigm Shift
“Sultry voice belying her 20 years and lyrics – quirky doesn’t half describe them — makes her one of the best young musicians I have heard in yonks!”
“The only moan that I have about the book is that the Sceptre paperback version had print so small that it had me reaching for my reading glasses, and one of the least inspiring cover designs I've seen on a paperback in yonks.”
“She has to: look after them for yonks, give them good care and then hand them over whilst giving permission for them to love us and for us to claim them as our own.”
“We lost "passion" yonks ago – or rather it suffered a seismic semantic upheaval, and now directly equates to long balls to so-called target men, and a tactical grasp bordering on the remedial.”
The Guardian: Why John Terry has done his 'fronting up' for the last time | Marina Hyde
“This is a bunch of guys that have been together for yonks, you know, I mean, you don't carry stuff like this onto the stage.”
NPR: The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards Looks Back At 'Life'
“Oh sorry been reading your blog for yonks so I know its run by imbeciles.”
“Okay, so, forgive me if this is not quite on topic, but you all seem like a knowledgeable bunch, and this has been bothering me for, well, yonks, I suppose.”
When What We Think We Know, Is Actually Wrong at SF Novelists
“Also, the new LJ feature that shows you what groups your filtered posts are filtered to is one I've been wanting for yonks.”
“All very good and well Mr L but some of us are still waiting for a few more of your excellent, nay fabulous, Doctor Who illos to grace these pages like you promised us, ok yonks back now.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘yonks’.
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Onk-tastic
Words containing the sound /ŏngk/.
Algonquin, Cronkite, Tonka, Tonkin, Wonka, Yonkers, bonk, bonkers, bronco, broncobuster, conk, conker and 53 more...
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Zamboni Palin
My imaginary lexicon for future megastar and visionary Zamboni Palin.
strewth, curple, speshly, ugly tree, whupping, nar'n, swain, sneezeweed, sciencey, snarleyyow, jackpudding, squanch and 304 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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Umbersorrow
Intangible, anthropic.
States of being are listed on oofy.njiju, glark, deplore, afterlithe, tagmass, spuriosity, forkful, chelation, oding, ploat, botnet, quedeship and 477 more...
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fliti's Words
panache, mushaboom, aubergine, serpentine, glimpse, schadenfreude, syzygy, plethora, zeitgeist, defenestrate, callipygian, ubiquitous and 239 more...
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one-chunk
deft, ept, eft, ilk, gad, thorp, fug, hwæt, surd, scraunched, whence, hence and 19 more...
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Sophie's Words
eclectic, recherché, snarf, bugger, eschewed, diplodocus, leviathan, persnickety, ubiquitous, yonks, brouhaha, chipper and 3 more...
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wot's all this, then?
Britishisms and Anglophilia - Mencken has a great, if dated, list of comparisons between the British and American words here.
aluminium, gobsmacked, queue, lift, bin, rubbish, navvy, ironmonger, treacle, parcel, constable, monkey-nut and 45 more...
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Strewth Mate, or, The Antipodean Anhang
Aussie stuff that doesn't really belong in my other lists.
The name is a discreet tribute to Charles Cudworth and his essay: "Ye Olde Spuriosity Shoppe, or, Put it in the Anhang", whi...wagga wagga, woy woy, walla walla, wee waa, wollongong, cooee, lairy, australele, kafoops, bewdiful, nature strip, yonks and 42 more...
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at least a bit ausländisch
also: words that are either not English, or would never be used by the majority of Americans.
portmanteau, szczecin, schlepp, waistcoat, prat, yonks, git, nom de plume, miłość, genau, umlaut, pila
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Nifty Misc
rechauffe, merrythought, fossick, flacon, douceur, prandial, barbican, chuffed, whinge, bumf, knackered, ponce and 37 more...
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rule Britannia!
git, twee, yonks, reckon, manky, flat, cinema, motorbike, swot, dodgy, wonky, nutter and 1 more...
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Favorite
avuncular, flan, hirsuite, tiffin, laconic, terse, dint, loquacious, lugubrious, languor, ægis, onus and 35 more...
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Distinctly British
Mostly but not limited to slang and some cockney guffy wibble
haberdashery, coventry, knackered, cack-handed, bate, bimble, blag, boffin, bonce, brolly, busk, cack and 71 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for yonks.
bilby In use in Australia. May 10, 2008
arby Trufax! Oct 4, 2007
yarb I think so. But it deserves wider adoption. Oct 4, 2007
arby It's Britlish, no? Oct 4, 2007
yarb "Yonks" is a long but unspecified period of time. E.g. "Mmm! I haven't eaten Brasso for yonks!" or "the last time I saw a heavy metal tattoo was yonks ago".
I've heard it's some kind of weird contraction of "donkey's (y)ears", and maybe it is. Oct 3, 2007
alterboy is this like "holy smokes!"? Oct 3, 2007