- The word ‘yac’ is an acronym for the term ‘yards after catch’ used in the context of football. The acronym and pronunciation of ‘yac’ as ‘yack’ perhaps originated because when football plays need to be discussed quickly, it is more efficient to say ‘yack’ than to say the entire phrase or to say each letter individually as in Y-A-C.
yac
noun; acronym
(pronounced yack) yards after catch; the yards that a foot player runs after catching the ball
Etymology : ‘Yard’ is from the Old English ‘geard’ meaning ‘enclosure, garden, court’ and ultimately is thought to have originated from the Proto Indo-European ‘*gher’ meaning ‘to grasp, enclose.’ ‘After’ can be parsed into the morphemes ‘apo’ meaning ‘off, away’ and ‘ter’ a comparative suffix and in Old English it literally meant ‘more away, father off.’ ‘Catch’ comes from Anglo-French ‘cachier’ which meant ‘catch, capture’ which came from the Latin ‘capere’ meaning ‘to take, hold.’
Source : ‘He got some yac on that play’ (football game broadcast, November 2008)
Last modified: 5 December 2008