Word Confusion: Yoke versus Yolk

Posted June 23, 2014 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
16 Oct 2022

The graphic images that are aroused in me when an author confuses a yoke with a yolk are, well, messy.

Admittedly, the yoke being mentioned is usually the neck-and-shoulders portion of a shirt or dress — which tells you just how sticky it appears in my imagination! Nor can I see oxen pulling a plow with yolks, sunny, runny, yellow egg embryos, dripping down their shoulders . . . Nor do those runny yolks seem sturdy enough! Either scenario makes me want to run for some rags and a bucket of water!

Unfortunately (for me), yoke and yolk are considered alternative spellings for each other. And I suspect that the majority of readers out there would interpret the most common (and current) definitions.

In the meantime, can you imagine if these words were switched? Of someone confusing a yolk for a yoke?

I don’t care how long you boil that yoke or if you wanna fry it up in a pan, I ain’t never gonna eat it.

And, after all that whining, whichever spelling you choose, be consistent and remember your readers, especially if your book includes yokes and yolks.

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Yoke Yolk

Bullock Yokes, circa 1950, is Cgoodwin’s own work under the GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 licenses, via Wikimedia Commons.


Yolks by Paul Goyette is under the CC-BY-SA-2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.

Part of Grammar:
Noun; Verb intransitive & transitive

Plural for the noun:

  • yoke (two oxen)
  • yokes (one ox or 3 to 20 oxen)

Gerund: yoking

Third person present verb: yokes
Past tense or past participle: yoked
Present participle: yoking

Alternative spelling: yolk

Noun

Plural: yolks

Alternative spelling: yoke

Obsolete spelling: yelk

Noun:
Wooden crosspiece fastened over the necks of two animals and attached to a plow or cart they are to pull

  • A pair of animals coupled together with a yoke
  • [Archaic] The amount of land that one pair of oxen could plow in a day
  • A frame fitting over the neck and shoulders of a person, used for carrying pails or baskets
  • Used of something that is regarded as oppressive or burdensome
  • Used of something that represents a bond between two parties

Something resembling or likened to a yoke, in particular:

  • A fitted part of a garment, especially around the neck, shoulders, chest, or around the hips to which a gathered, pleated, flared, or unfitted part is attached
  • The crossbar at the head of a rudder, to whose ends ropes are fastened
  • A bar of soft iron between the poles of an electromagnet
  • [In ancient Rome] An arch of three spears under which a defeated army was made to march
  • [Chiefly North American] A control lever in an aircraft

[Irish; informal] A thing whose name one cannot recall, does not know, or does not wish to specify

[Irish slang] Ecstasy pills

Verb, intransitive:
To be or become joined, linked, or united

Verb, transitive:
Put a yoke on a pair of animals

  • Couple or attach with or to a yoke
    • To attach a draft animal to a plow or vehicle
    • To harness a draft animal to (a plow or vehicle

[Slang] Rob or mug a person

  • To rob with violence
  • Rob and mutilate

[Obsolete] To bring into subjection or servitude

The yellow internal part of a bird’s egg, which is surrounded by the white, is rich in protein and fat, and nourishes the developing embryo

  • [Zoology] The corresponding part in the ovum or larva of all egg-laying vertebrates and many invertebrates

[Embryology] The part of the contents of the egg of an animal that enters directly into the formation of the embryo, together with any material that nourishes the embryo during its formation

The essential part

  • The inner core

A natural grease exuded from the skin of sheep

Examples:
Noun:
Get the yoke on those oxen.

Many Western-style shirts have a shaped yoke.

We’ll only need a yoke of oxen to plow this yoke.

It was so much easier to carry two pails of water with a yoke.

It is the yoke of imperialism that has kept us down!

Men frequently joke about the yoke of marriage.

The pilot uses the yoke to control the attitude of the plane.

How much did that yoke set you back?

Verb, intransitive:
Jim and Karen got yoked this morning.

The oxen were yoked together.

“Believers are admonished not to allow themselves to be yoked together with unbelievers for the purpose of accomplishing an immoral task” (Kennedy, 21).

Verb, transitive:
A camel and donkey yoked together is a recipe for disaster.

Hong Kong’s dollar has been yoked to America’s.

Yoke up those oxen!

Two crackheads yoked this girl.

They decided to yoke the old man with the hearing aid.

Wow, these eggs have some pretty big yolks!

Controversy rages back and forth over whether yolks are good or bad for you.

A yolk has 70 calories.

Merino sheep are remarked for the quantity of yolk they exude.

“The shell represents the earth’s 35-km (22 mile)- thick (or less) crust on which we walk and live. The egg white represents the 2,850- km (1770 mile)- thick mantle, the source of heat for Hawaiian and other hot spot volcanoes, and the yolk represents the 3,500-km (2172 mile) -thick core” (USGS).

Derivatives:
Adjective: yokeless, well-yoked Adjective: yolked, yolkless, yolky
History of the Word:
Old English geoc1, geocian3 is of Germanic origin and related to the Dutch juk, the German Joch, from an Indo-European root shared by the Latin jugum and the Greek zugon, also by the Latin jungere meaning to join. Old English geol(o)ca, from geolu meaning yellow.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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Resources for Yoke versus Yolk

Apple Dictionary.com

Dictionary.com: yoke, yolk

Kennedy, James and Walter Kennedy. Nullifying Tyranny: Creating Moral Communities in an Immoral Society. Pelican Publishing, 2010. Paperback. <https://amzn.to/3rXJBjd>.

USGS: Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. <https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/usgs-hawaiian-volcano-observatory>.

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Pinterest Photo Credits

Oxen Yoke, <https://visualhunt.com/f2/photo/8911386205/408f376fda/>, by BarbaraLN, <https://visualhunt.com/author/40b4ed>, is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via VisualHunt and Fried Egg, Sunny Side Up by David Benbennick, which is in the public domain, are via Wikimedia Commons.

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