Also youdle, yoddle, yodle, jodel, erron. jödel. [ad. G. jodeln (Bavarian dial. jodln, jolen), properly, to utter the syllable jo.] intr. To sing or warble with interchange of the ordinary and falsetto voice, in the manner of Swiss and Tyrolese mountaineers. Also transf.
1838. Lady Granville, Lett. (1894), II. 266. Listening to three little peasant girls, all youdling to perfection in parts.
1841. in J. F. Campbell, Frost & Fire (1865), I. 156. We went yoddling and shouting to rouse the echoes.
1850. B’ness Tautphœus, The Initials, v. A loud gay voice was heard in the distance jodling.
1876. Besant & Rice, Gold. Butterfly, xxv. The shepherds jodel in the valleys.
1878. H. S. Wilson, Alpine Ascents, i. 21. Our guides shout and jödel.
1890. Lowell, Lett. to Miss E. G. Norton, 7 Sept. The screech-owl … every night yodels mournfully about the house like a banshee.
b. trans. with the melody as object.
1839. Longf., Hyperion, III. iii. A single voice … was heard yodling forth a ballad.
1879. Baring-Gould, Germany, xi. II. 5. From far away comes the refrain jödeled back to her.
Hence Yodel(l)ing (yoddling, jodel(l)ing) vbl. sb.; also Yodel(l)er (yodler, jodler), Yodelist, one who yodels.
1830. Scott, Jrnl., 4 June. Anne wants me to go to hear the Tyrolese Minstrels, but … I cannot but think their yodelling … is a variation … upon the tones of a jackass.
1841. in J. F. Campbell, Frost & Fire (1865), I. 155. We stepped out for our stone house, from which came yoddling and screaming and all sorts of noises.
1885. Mrs. C. Praed, Head Stat., xxviii. Clephane and Wyatt executed … an effective jodelling chorus.
1885. Detroit Free Press, 4 Oct., 11/2 (Cassell). Just as I was beginning to deplore the tragic fate of the yodelist he began to play once more.
1910. R. E. Vernède, in Blackw. Mag., Oct., 469/2. He reminded me sometimes of a Swiss yodeler heard near by.
