X Ale. The original significance of the X mark on beer barrels was that the liquor had paid a ten shilling-duty. Additional X’s are simply brewers’ trade marks, denoting various degrees of strength over that of the first X.

XL’ers. See “Exellers.”

XXX’s. See “Three Exes.”

Y

Yale University. After Elihu Yale, formerly Governor of the East Indian Company’s settlement at Madras, whose princely benefactions to the Collegiate School of the State of Connecticut, founded by ten Congregational ministers at Killingworth in 1701, warranted the removal of that seat of learning to New Haven fifteen years later.

Yang-tse-Kiang. Chinese for “great river.”

Yankee. A term popularly applied at first to one born in the New England states of North America owing to the fact that Yankees, Yangkies and similar perpetrationsperpetrations were the nearest approaches to the word “English,” which the Indians of Massachusetts were capable of. Afterwards it came to be applied to the people of the continent generally.

Yankee Jonathan. The nickname of Jonathan Hastings, a farmer of Hastings, Mass., on account of his addiction to the word “Yankee,” used adjectively for anything American. Thus he would say “a Yankee good cider,” “a Yankee good horse,” etc.

Yankee State. Ohio, so called by the Kentuckians on account of its many free institutions.

Yarmouth. The port situated at the mouth of the Yare. See “Yarrow.”

Yarn. A spun-out story bears this name in allusion to the thread out of which cloth is woven.

Yarrow. From the Celtic garw, rough, rapid.

Yellow Jack. A yellow flag which is flown from a vessel in quarantine and from naval hospitals as a warning of yellow fever or other contagious disease on board. See “Union Jack.”

Yellow Press. By this term is meant that section of the Press which is given up to creating a scare or sensation. It has been derived from what in the United States bears the name of “Yellow-covered Literature,” consisting of trashy sensation novels, published chiefly for railway reading.

Yellow Sea. From the tinge imparted to its waters by the immense quantities of alluvial soil poured into them by the Yang-tse-Kiang River.

Yendys. The literary sobriquet of Sydney Dobell, being simply his Christian name reversed.

Yeoman’s Service. Originally that rendered to the State in time of war by volunteers of the Guilds or City Companies. The term “Yeoman” is derived from the German gemein, common, and applied in the sense of enlistment for the common good.

Yokohama. Japanese for “Cross Shore.”

York. The Eboracum of the Romans, a Latinised rendering of the British Eurewic (pronounced Yorric), “a row of houses on the Eure,” which river is now called the Ouse.

York and Albany. An omnibus stage in Camden Town named after Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, the second son of George III.

York Gate. The water gate, still standing, built for York House, of which no other vestige remains.

York Road. This long road, parallel to the Great Northern Railway at King’s Cross, owes its designation to the circumstance that the line in question was originally styled the “London and York Railway.”

Yorkshire Stingo. A public-house sign indicating that the celebrated ale of this name, due to the sting or sharpness of its taste, is sold on the premises.

Young Nipper. See “Nipper.”

Yucatan. From Yuca tan, “What do you say?” which was the only answer the Spaniards were able to obtain from the aborigines when they asked them the name of the country.

YuletideYuletide. Christmastide, from the Norse juul, Christmas.

Zadkiel. The literary sobriquet of Lieutenant Richard James Morrison, author of “The Prophetic Almanack,” after the angel of the planet Jupiter in the Jewish mythology.

Zantippe. After the wife of Socrates, whose name has become proverbial for a bad-tempered spouse.