gap yah

English

Etymology

From stereotypical pronunciation by the privileged upper class. Compare yah (“an upper-class person”). Gap Yah was the name of a comedy sketch of this kind, published on YouTube in February 2010.

Noun

gap yah (plural gap yahs)

1. (UK, slang, humorous) A gap year.
   • 2020, Grace Campbell, Amazing Disgrace: A Book About "Shame":

     I was at university in Paris for three months and I missed my friends desperately. I'd gone away without them on my gap yah but being in the Caribbean alone was fun, and people there were friendly and made me feel safe.

   • 2020, Naomi Joy, Do Her No Harm:

     I pushed a strawberry sweet into my mouth, bagged up the afternoon's rubbish and thought about what my gap-yah girl would be called, what her favourite colour was, her favourite food.

   • 2022, Nicole Kennedy, After Paris:

     The sneers about my gap yah. The eye-rolling whenever I mentioned Exeter. Full of posh pricks, you said once. I thought I wasn't cool enough for you.