Y 1. The electronic symbol for admittance - the inverse of impedance. 2. Abbreviation for luminance (black & white) video signal. 3. atomic symbol for yttrium - my absolute favorite element, next to ytterbium. 4. multiply/divide register [IEEE Standard]

Y2k (year two thousand)

yabber Australian To jabber (something) or engage in jabbering. [From Australian pidgin, perhaps from Wuywurung (Aboriginal language of southeast Australia) yaba, to talk.] [AHD]

yackety-yack Prolonged, sometimes senseless talk. [AHD] After yack: a snapping sound; engaged in trivial or unduly persistent talk or conversation; chatter. (Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 5th ed.)

yada-yada Trivial, tedious, or meaningless talk or writing; chatter. (Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 5th ed.) [And you thought Seinfeld writers made this up!]

YAG (yttrium-aluminum-garnet) A type of solid-state laser. Compare with YIG.

yagger To talk angrily (Kentucky word). [Dictionary of American Regional English, vol. V: Si-Z, Harvard University Press, 2012; ISBN 978-0674047358.]

Yagi antenna Shortened form of Yagi-Uda antenna, a linear end-fire array consisting of a driven element, a reflector element, and one or more director elements — your basic TV antenna. [named after Hidetsugu Yagi (1886-1976), laboratory director of Shintaro Uda, professor at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan.]

yahoo A crude or brutish person; a boor. [And you thought it was a search engine.]

yak To talk persistently and meaninglessly; chatter. Prolonged, sometimes senseless talk; chatter. [AHD]

yaka mein Favorite Creole food of New Orleans musicians after a long night of drinking and playing.

y'allternative "Music known most commonly as 'country rock' which is a hybrid of modern alternative rock and country music." — Pseudodictionary.com

Yamada, Kosaku (1886-1965) Japanese composer who laid the foundations for modern Japanese music in the European tradition. [Sadie]

yammer To complain peevishly or whimperingly; whine. [AHD]

yang-qin Musical Instrument. A Chinese hammered dulcimer.

yap 1. To bark sharply or shrilly; yelp. 2. Slang To talk noisily or stupidly; jabber. n. 1. A sharp, shrill bark; a yelp. 2. Slang Noisy, stupid talk; jabber. 3. Slang The mouth: Shut your yap. 4. Slang A stupid, crude, or loud person. [AHD]

yapped Book jargon Refers to the edge of the cover of a book bound in paper or other soft material. Yapped edges are not flush with the pages but extend beyond the edges of the book making them fragile.

yard Symbol: yd. A non-SI unit of length. Defined value in terms of SI units: 1 yd = 0.9144 m. [IEEE Std 270™-2006, IEEE Standard Definitions for Selected Quantities, Units, and Related Terms, with Special Attention to the International System of Units (SI)]

yarr To growl or snarl like a dog. [Lynch]

yaw 1. Nautical To swerve off course momentarily or temporarily: The ship yawed as the heavy wave struck abeam. 2. To turn about the vertical axis. Used of an aircraft, spacecraft, or projectile. 3. To move unsteadily; weave. [AHD]

yaw-haw To laugh loudly. [Wiktionary]

yawp 1. To utter a sharp cry; yelp. 2. To talk loudly, raucously, or coarsely. [AHD]

y-axis The vertical axis of a two-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system, or one of three axes in a three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system. [AHD]

YaYa Music. 1. What came before music (YaYa). 2. Sittin' here LaLa ... waitin' for my YaYa. 3. The chemistry between musicians and the audience.

yayli tanbur Musical Instrument. A Turkish bowed lute.

yazheng Musical Instrument. A Chinese stringed instrument.

YB (yottabyte) The number of bytes represented by 2 raised to the 80th power, i.e., 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 bytes.

Yb The atomic symbol for the element ytterbium.

Y/C video See S-video.

Y-connector or Y-cord A three-wire circuit that is star connected. Also spelled wye-connector. It is okay to use a Y-connector to split an audio signal from an output to drive two inputs; it is not okay to use a Y-connector to try and sum or mix two signals together to drive one input. For details, see the RaneNote Why Not Wye?

y-cut Oscillators. A method of cutting a quartz plate for an oscillator, with the y-axis of the crystal perpendicular to the faces of the plate. Contrast with x-cut.

Y-Δ transform See: wye-delta transformation.

YDG (young digital guy) As opposed to an OAG.

YDNL (yearly day-night average sound level) Acoustics. The day-night average sound level averaged over an entire year. [Harris, Cyril M., Handbook of Acoustical Measurements and Noise Control, McGraw-Hill, 1991, ISBN 0-07-026868-1]

year (y) The unit of time measurement approximately equal to 8765.81277 hours (h). [IEEE Std 493-2007, IEEE Recommended Practice for the Design of Reliable Industrial and Commercial Power Systems]

yearly day-night average sound level Acoustics. The day-night average sound level averaged over an entire year. [Harris]

Yehudi Menuhin Festival of Music Held in Switzerland annually since its establishment in 1956. There is another one celebrated at San Francisco State University since 2003.

Yellow Book Nickname for the Philips and Sony's ECMA-130 standard document that defines the format for CD-ROM (compact disc-read only memory) discs; available only to licensees. Compare with Red Book and Green Book

yelp To utter a short, sharp bark or cry. [AHD]

yembe Musical Instrument. Alternate name for djembes.

Yeomen of the Guard, The. Operetta by Sullivan to a libretto by Gilbert (1888, London). [Sadie]

yep Informal term meaning yes. [AHD]

Yepes, Narciso (1927-1997) Spanish guitarist famous (among many other things) for his performances of Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquin Rodrigo using his co-invention of the ten-string guitar.

Yerges, Lyle F. (1918-1985) American engineer, technical author and editor, specialized in acoustical performance of architectural elements. Author of Sound, Noise & Vibration Control, originally published in 1969, revised in 1978, and still in print.

yé-yé Designating or pertaining to a style of popular music, dress, etc., typical of the 1960s, esp. in France; associated with or enthusiastic about this or subsequent forms of popular optimistic youth culture. [OED]

yield The number of devices that work as planned, specified as a percentage of the total number actually fabricated. Normally used to quantify a run of integrated circuits.

yield strength Materials Science. The magnitude of mechanical stress at which a material will begin to deform.

YIG (yttrium-iron-garnet) A crystalline material used in microwave devices. Compare with YAG. [Don't confuse your 'yag-yig' with your 'ying-yang.']

yikes Used to express mild fear or surprise. [AHD]

yipper cable Nickname for a component video cable based on the YPbPr color space. Since saying "YPbPr" is difficult, "yipper" was coined as an alternative.

Y/N Software program "yes/no" response prompt. A "Y" or "N" keystroke is expected.

Ynysddu Welsh district and home to Penny & Giles.

yob Chiefly British. Backward spelling of "boy" used to mean an uncouth, loutish, ignorant youth or man; especially one given to violent or aggressive behavior. [OED] A crowd of yelling yobs.

yoctosecond Abbr. ys or ysec One septillionth (10^-24) of a second.

yodel Music. To sing so that the voice fluctuates rapidly between the normal chest voice and a falsetto. [AHD]

yoicks Used as a hunting cry to urge hounds after a fox. [AHD]

yoke 1. Any magnetic core interconnection material. 2. The deflection windings of a CRT. 3. A series of two or more magnetic recording heads fastened securely together for playing or recording on more than one track simultaneously. [AHD]

YOLO Acronym for You Only LIve Once.

York Festivals The town of York, England puts on over thirty festivals each year, including at least six music festivals. Nicknamed "City of Festivals."

Yoruba music A form of music indigenous to West Africa, chiefly Nigeria, characterized by intense drumming.

Yosemite Where the Strawberry Music Festival is held each Labor Day weekend (actually held at Camp Mather, bordering Yosemite National Park.)

yotar Musical Instrument. A guitar-like instrument with only four notes.

yottahertz Abbr. YHz One septillion (10²⁴) hertz.

Yuasa, Joji (born August 12, 1929) Japanese composer, one of the first to take an interest in musique concrète.

Young, Lester (1909-1959) Famous American jazz saxophonist, best known for being in the Count Basie orchestra.

Young's modulus Abbr. E (Also know as elastic modulus.) Materials. A measure of the stiffness of a given material. "For a solid, it is the ratio of the longitudinal stress to the longitudinal stain in the same direction, when a rod of the material is stretched by a small amount along its axis and allowed to contract freely transverse to the axis." [Morfey]

Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, The  An orchestral composition by Benjamin Britten created in 1946.

Young, Thomas (1773-1829) British scientist best known for his modulus.

Young waves Materials. Longitudinal waves that propagate in a uniform bar of solid material with stress-free sides. [Morfey]

yow Used to express alarm, pain, or surprise. [AHD]

yowl To utter a long loud mournful cry; wail. [AHD]

YPbPr See: yipper cable.

YRB (Yellow Rat Bastard) Website, magazine, clothes, music, newsletter, all for the ultra hip, from NYC, of course. Contains adult content. Check it out.

YTD Year to date.

ytterbrium Chemistry. Named after Ytterby (a town in Sweden) ... "Ytterbium metal increases its electrical resistivity when subjected to high stresses. This property is used in stress gauges to monitor ground deformations from earthquakes and explosions." [Wikipedia]

yttrium See definition three for "Y" above.

yu Musical Instruments. Ancient Chinese instruments with two varieties: wind and percussion.

yue-qin (also seen as yueqin) Musical Instrument. Chinese lute "moon guitar" (for its round shape) with a circular body and four strings.

yuk 1. An exuberant laugh. 2. One, such as a joke, that causes such a laugh. To joke or laugh exuberantly: a student who yukked it up in class. [AHD]

yule-hole The last hole to which a man can stretch his belt at a Christmas feast. [Kacirk]

YUV video The coding process used in CD-I in which the luminance signal (Y) is recorded at full bandwidth on each line and chroma values (U and V) are recorded at half bandwidth on alternate lines.

YUX Musical Instruments. Model number prefix for one of Yamaha's upright pianos.

Yvonne Daniels See: disc jockey.