Yiff

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Yiff is an onomatopoetic word that was originally coined in 1990 by Foxen^[1] while roleplaying his fursona littlefox. It was originally a positive exclamation in Foxen's Foxish language, but the word has degenerated over time from its original meaning of "a cheerful greeting, an energetic 'yes!'" to an expression of sexual interest or activity (see Foxish Language for details on the lexicon). It is now a very common word which can be used as an interjection, an adjective ("yiffy"), a verb, or a noun (in which case it typically refers to anthropomorphic erotica), though some prefer to use more conventional English in its place regardless.

Various sources mention it could be named after the noise foxes make while mating. ("It's the sound you get when you rub two foxes together.")^{[citation needed]}

1 Term development
2 Additional term usage
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Term development

In Foxish, yiff initially meant "yes!" or an enthused "hello!". Later, "yiff" was assigned a more sexual connotation, a meaning that had previously been assigned to yipp (a coarse form of yip.)^[2] This was compounded by several fox characters on Furry MUCK who were spreading a very sexual reputation for the species at about the same time as this came into common usage. (It should be noted that, while it is a matter of preference, many people highly dislike the use of "yiff" as a verb and prefer seeing the real English equivalents used, as they find that "yiff" makes sentences awkward, lacks a clear definition, or "sounds stupid.")

[edit] Additional term usage

A foxish greeting
An expression of happiness and success
General sexual activity or context (see yiffing)
Cybersex or TinySex
The title of a planned musical theater piece
Erotic or pornographic anthropomorphic art

The last is arguably the most common. Entire sites have sprung up around erotic activities, such as Yiffstar, an erotic textual story and artwork archive.

[edit] See also

The Wiktionary articles for the words yiff, yiffy, yiffs, and yiffing.
#yiff on Anthrochat
#yiff on FurNet

[edit] References

Did you know? The earliest known recorded use of the word is in Sir Thomas Malory's 1485 epic, Le Morte d'Arthur, which was the Middle English equivalent to the modern day conjunction, or noun, "If."