Trump tariffs live updates: EU pauses counter-tariffs on US goods after Trump backs down on tariff hike

Adam Goldsmith
Live reporter

Image source, Getty Images

When Donald Trump explained why he had put a 90-day pause on
his sweeping tariff scheme, he told reporters that it was because countries
had started
to get “yippy”.

But what exactly did the president mean by this; was the
keen golfer referring to the so-called yips that so often hinder a clean putt?
Or something else entirely?

Dr Robbie Love, a senior lecturer in English Language and
Linguistics at Aston University, tells me that “yip” can be traced
back as far as the 1400s, where there is evidence of it being used to refer to
the cheeping sound of a newly hatched bird.

But, by the 20th Century this had been adapted to refer to
“high-pitched barking of small dogs” and also “any kind of
short, high-pitched cry, including those made by people”, Love explains.

“The adjective ‘yippy’ seems to be derived from this
sense – describing [in this case in humans] a quality of excitable/anxious [and
also perhaps annoying] yelping, like a dog.”

The expert, though, stresses that he can’t be sure whether
this is exactly what Trump intended to imply when he addressed reporters
outside the White House.

“He may have meant that he’d been inundated with
communications about the tariffs, and/or perhaps he meant something closer to ‘skittish'”, Love observes.

“Or perhaps it reveals something about how he regards
the leaders of other countries.”