In Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, a yahoo is a vile and savage creature, filthy and with unpleasant habits, resembling human beings far too closely for the liking of Lemuel Gulliver, who finds the calm and rational society of the Houyhnhnms far preferable. Hence the term "yahoo" has become a general term of insult, much along the lines of "cretin".

The name of the yowie of Australian myth was taken from Swift's yahoos originally. Daniel Boone claimed that he killed a hairy giant that he called a yahoo. Boone often used terms from Gulliver's Travels. The creators of the Yahoo! search engine chose its name at least partly on account of the word's meaning from Gulliver's Travels.