Over 26,000 people sign petition to change the word 'No' to 'Yesn't' DATE: 2024-05-25 01:32:01
If your brain already hurts from the Yanny/Laurel drama, get ready for the next way to butcher the English language: changing "no" to "yesn't."
A Change.org petition to change the word "no" to "yesn't" was posted on Tuesday. Since then, it's gained over 26,000 signatures, gaining hundreds of more supporters every hour. The petition's description only says "My Jeff," because internet humor can't get more bizarre than that.
There's yesn't shortage of memes about it.
People want to change the word "no" to "yesn't," and it actually has a lot of support.Credit: screengrab via change.orgClearly, the petition is working. Just look at how much interest in "yesn't" has shot up this month, according to Google:
According to Know Your Meme, "yesn't" first appeared online in April 2008 as an entry in Urban Dictionary. The 2008 definition means "maybe yes and maybe no" and is used in this context:
Q: Do you feel like doing some thing tonight?A: Yesn't
But the 2018 definition means definitively no, and it spawned some deep cut memes:
After the meme started popping up, a submission was made to the explainer subreddit r/OutOfTheLoop, where on Redditor gave a pretty good explainer of the idea behind yesn't.
The petition also inspired a new subreddit of likeminded people who believe the English language needs a change: r/yesnt. It already has 4,000 subscribers.
Twitter users came up with some examples of how "yesn't" can be used in everyday conversations.
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And even offered a replacement for yes: "yesn'tn't."
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One Redditor is dedicated to DM'ing Merriam-Webster every day and imploring them to "please change 'no' to 'yesn't' in the dictionary." (At the time of writing, Merriam-Webster still hasn't replied to this "yesn't" stan.)
And one dissenter (dyesn'ter, if you will) proposed a replacement for the replacement -- non't.
Do you have a headache yet? Yesn't worries, we do too.
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