yes, Virginia

English

Etymology

From a celebrated line in an 1897 editorial by Francis Pharcellus Church in the New York Sun in response to eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon asking whether Santa Claus was real.

Phrase

yes, Virginia

  1. (humorous) Yes, something is true, despite skepticism or naysayers.
    • 1983 February 28, Walter Isaacson, “Opening the silly season”, in Time‎[1], archived from the original on 15 April 2016:
      Yes, Virginia, there is a presidential election in 1984—and it has begun: A former Vice President goes ice fishing and poses with a puny perch dangling from his line. A 68-year-old Senator dons athletic shorts and runs a 60-yd. dash in a San Francisco track meet. […] Such hijinks can mean only one thing: the quadrennial silly season has started again.
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