Jewish slang:
yok
ALTERNATIVE SPELLINGS
yock
DEFINITIONS
rowdy non-Jewish hooligan (derogatory)
EXAMPLE SENTENCE
"Friday night is yoks' night out"
LANGUAGES OF ORIGIN
Yiddish, English
ETYMOLOGY
Etymology unclear. Possibly from Yiddish ืืึธืง '(dialectal) ninny, fool', more likely from Yiddish ืืื "goy" said backwards (on Cockney slang-forming basis of "yob," a hooligan, from "boy") and with final devoicing. Another possibility is from the British city York, location of a massacre of Jews in 1190.
WHO USES THIS
Jews: Jews of diverse religious backgrounds and organizational involvements
REGIONS
Great Britain, South Africa
NOTES
Diminutive forms also exist in British Jewish-English, namely "yeykl" (for a male) and "yeyklte" (for a female), which make use of Yiddish suffixes.