Yoke

How to spell yoke

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce yoke

What does yoke mean?

1. nounA wooden crossbar fastened over the necks of two animals so they pull together, or, figuratively, a heavy burden or form of oppression.
2. verbTo join or couple two things firmly together, as oxen are linked for work.

Yoke in a sentence

• noun

  The farmer fitted the heavy wooden yoke across the necks of the two oxen.

• verb

  The treaty would yoke the two small nations into a single trading bloc.

• noun

  The rebels vowed to throw off the yoke of foreign rule.

• verb

  Engineers had to yoke the two engines so they could drive the locomotive as one unit.

Where does yoke come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English geoc, the wooden crossbar laid over the necks of a pair of oxen so they could pull a plough or cart together. It traces back through the ancient Germanic ancestor that also produced the Dutch juk and the German Joch, and ultimately to an Indo-European root meaning 'to join', the same root that gave Latin iugum 'yoke' and even the Sanskrit yoga, literally a 'union' or 'yoking'. From the literal farming sense the word grew a figurative meaning of heavy servitude or oppressive burden, so people have long spoken of throwing off the yoke of tyranny. A separate dressmaking sense developed later, naming the fitted shoulder or hip panel from which the rest of a garment hangs, because it 'carries' the fabric much as the oxen-bar carries the load. The spelling is the chief trap: the silent oke ending and the fact that yoke sounds identical to yolk, the yellow of an egg, in many accents, which is why writers must hold the meaning firmly in mind.

How the word is built

• yoke (from Old English geoc: a wooden frame joining two animals)
• no affixes