yen-yenn.
/ˈjɛnjɛn/, U.S. /ˈjɛnˌjɛn/ U.S. slang.
A craving for opium, the ‘opium-habit’.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > use of drugs and poison > drug addiction or craving > [noun]
addiction1779
addictedness1788
narcomania1865
yen1876
drug addiction1881
yen-yen1886
drug abuse1903
oil burner1962
Jones1968
1886 T. F. Byrnes Professional Crim. of Amer. 385 A fiend suffering with the inyun is a man to be avoided.
1886 T. F. Byrnes Professional Crim. of Amer. 384 I was a victim to the opium habit, or, as the Chinese have it, inyun fun.
1892 H. Campbell Darkness & Daylight xxviii. 569 ‘I've got the yen-yen (opium habit) the worst way’, said one woman, ‘and must have my pipe every night.’
1904 H. Hapgood Autobiogr. Thief (U.K. ed.) x. 207 Perhaps it was the sight or smell of the hop, but anyway I got the yen-yen and shook as in the ague.
1926 J. Black You can't Win xvii. 238 He [sc. an old Chinese man] was shaking with the ‘yen yen’, the hop habit.
1961 Amer. Speech 36 178 If Cantonese yen yen be regarded as the probable source of English yen-yen we may assume that the syllables represent the individual etymons for yen ‘opium’ and yen ‘craving’.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1886