ETYMOLOGY
– obsolete or dialect form of YEX – Old English ᵹeocsian, ᵹiscian,
corresponding to Old High German geskôn, gesgizôn ‘oscitare’: of imitative origin
EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“…There throngs a Cutpurse, with his working toole,
And there’s gallant Coxcombe, there’s Fooles
There’s foure or fiue together by the eares,
And tumble in the Dirt like Dogs and Beares.
One staggering there hath got the drunken yox,
And there one swaggering’s fast within the Stocks
Thus with these Gadeymaufry humours still…”
From: Goose,
Goose Faire at Stratford Bow, the Thursday after Whitsuntide
John Taylor, 1621
Lexicophilia 