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Nov 1, 2013 · The OED says the origin of yonks is unknown and has it from 1968 in the Daily Mail: I rang singer Julie Driscoll... She said: ‘I haven't heard from you for yonks.’. The Shorter Slang Dictionary (Partridge, Beale, Fergusson, 1994) agrees it's from the 1960s and suggests:
The earliest known use of the noun yonks is in the 1960s. OED's earliest evidence for yonks is from 1968, in the Daily Mirror (London). yonks is of unknown origin.
May 15, 2024 · None other than Susie Dent posted on then-Twitter in 2016, “Yonks’ probably began as ‘yonkey’s dears’, a play on ‘donkey’s years’ - and that began as a joky reference to the animal’s very long...
Nov 16, 2002 · This concurs with Paul Beale’s note in the 1984 revision of Eric Partridge’s Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English that he had first heard it in the army in Cyprus in 1957. Taken together, these also imply that it was created as services slang.
Jan 18, 2024 · Yonks, derived from “donkey’s years,” is believed to have emerged in the late 19th or early 20th century, originating from Cockney rhyming slang. Its unique evolution can be attributed to the dynamic nature of language and the vibrant subcultures that shape it. As language evolves over time, so does its usage and meaning.
Yonks Origin and History - British slang for a very long time dates from the 1960s, perhaps derived from donkey’s years. Yonks Meanings and origins of thousands of idioms, curious words, and slang.
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An early citation from 1975 has: Alas, the comics for that age group have nearly all picture stories today -- and of course the ones for younger readers have been that way for yonks (sorry, years). Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 1975-01-28, p. 3.
