i hear rednecks at this school constantly saying “over yonder”, when exactly did that ever become a word?

Americans.

redneck inbreds have their own language that doesn’t make sense to the rest of us normal people. It’s from all the years of reproducing with their own kin…it’s only a word to them.

I no undastan dees “yonder”

Yonder goes back to old English, it’s been around longer than rednecks.

You know the word appears in the official U.S.Air Force fight song,,,”Off we go, into the wild blue yonder”,,,

That word cracks me up . Yonder comes from Old English geond so I am guessing it’s always been a word .

it has always been a word its nothing new……never heard of the wild blue yonder?

Yonder is an old-fashioned or dialect word for `over there,’ or ‘there.’ I’ll use an example. “Being rude with stereotyping people, I bet you are not winning any friends over yonder at your school.”

don’t talk bad about red necks.they are different but if you need to jack up a truck,lay a pipe under ground,climb a tree,kill a deer,catch a big fish,mow a lawn,etc,etc,they are the best at it

Which word…over or yonder??

over – across a barrier or intervening space

yonder – at or in that indicated more or less distant place usually within sight

There you go Suki:)

When they said it to mean “over there”…from their parents…from their parents, etc.

Here’s what I found:
“Yes, yonder is a word that is somewhat peculiar to the Southern U.S., but it is actually a very old word! It dates from the end of the 13th century with the same meaning as today: “at or in that place; there, usually implying that the object spoken of is at some distance but within sight”. Yon is an earlier word, having the Old English form geoh and meaning “that [object or thing]” The earliest example of yon (as geoh) comes from the writings of Alfred the Great in about 897. There are cognates in the Germanic languages as well as Sanskrit, Old Slavonic, and Lithuanian.

The Indo-European root here is *i-, which is what is known as a “pronominal stem” that gave us other words like identity, item, ilk, if, and reiterate.

Here’s what the American Heritage Dictionary has to say about yonder’s usage:

The adverb yonder, from Old English geond, is not exclusively Southern but is more frequently used there than in any other region of the United States, and not only by older or uneducated speakers. Yonder is not merely a Southern synonym for there, which in the South tends to mean “only a few feet from the speaker.” Yonder carries with it an inherent sense of distance farther than “there” and is used if the person or thing indicated can be seen: the shed over yonder. Or it might be nearby but completely out of sight, as in the next room.”

“Over yonder” is a phrase and is indeed a correct saying. If you are referring to the word “yonder” it’s been a word since the 1500′s.

You know “through what light does yonder window breaks.”

So actually that is a very, very, very, very, very old school saying.

So know you know when. We all know hill billy’s tend to behind in the times….but at least they are correct.

Learn it before you criticize cause you just got schooled my friend

1250 AD, genius.