yeti
nounUS /ˈjɛ.ti/
Etymology Borrowed from Tibetan གཡའ་དྲེད (g.ya' dred, “wildman, yeti”), compound of གཡའ (g.ya', “dirt, rust, slate”) and དྲེད (dred, “bear”). Attested since 1937.
1
Biology, Cryptozoology, Natural sciences, Zoology An unidentified humanoid animal said to live in the Himalayas.
- The Sherpas had no hesitation in pronouncing them to be those of a Snowman or "Yeti" (not "mirka" as Mr.Smythe's Tibetans had it), and they thought he was the smaller man-eating variety and not his larger yak-eating brother.[…]They may even have been our friend ursus arctoc pruinosus, but they were no more like the tracks of our "Yeti" than those of a two-toed anteater or an armadillo.1937 November 13, Balu, “Are The 'Snowmen' Bears?”, in The Times, page 13:
- There is no doubt that the Sherpas accept the fact that the Yeti really exists. But then they believe just as confidently that their gods live in comfort on the summit of Mount Everest. We found it quite impossible to divorce the Yeti from the supernatural.1962, Edmund Hillary, Desmond Doig, “Into the Mingbo Valley”, in High in the Thin Cold Air: The Story of the Himalayan Expedition, led by Sir Edmund Hillary, sponsored by World Book Encyclopedia, Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 131:
- Derived terms
- yeti boot, yeti crab, yeti lobster