yiff

Etymology

Yiff is 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).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /jɪf/
• Rhymes: -ɪf

Interjection

yiff

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

Noun

yiff (usually uncountable, plural yiffs)

1. (informal) A bark.
2. (slang, informal) The act of yiffing.
   • 1996 July 14, j.serdy, “RFC: A Beginner’s Guide to TinySex on the FurryMuck”, in alt.fan.furry, Usenet‎, message-ID <4sbqit$cap@netaxs.com>:

     Of course the inverse is possible with all these possibilities, and you can be having a yiff with a partner in the room with you and be having a pleasant non-sexual conversation with another remote player through a page-conversation.

3. (slang, informal) Pornography of furries (fictional anthropomorphic animal characters).

   Do you draw yiff?

Verb

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

1. (transitive and intransitive, slang, informal) To have sex, to mate (said of animals, especially foxes, or people dressed up as animals).
   • 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!

   • 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.

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

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

Etymology 1

From Old English ġif.

Etymology 2

From Old English giefan.