yo-yo, a toy that falls and rises back to the hand by the unwinding and rewinding of a string attached to an axle that connects two disks of equal size and weight. The disks can be made of plastic, wood, or metal. As a person drops the yo-yo, the string that is wound around the axle releases. When the string is fully expanded, the person flicks their wrist and gets the string to rewrap around the axle, thus bringing the yo-yo back up.
The yo-yo is an ancient toy, the earliest known references to it dating back to Greece about 500 bce. It is believed, however, that the yo-yo originated in China at a much earlier date. During the late 18th century in France, the toy was made from glass and ivory and was called “joujou de Normandie.” In England it was called a bandalore or a quiz. After an illustration of the prince of Wales (later George IV) playing with his yo-yo was printed, the toy became a hit with the fashionable set.
Yo-yos perhaps reached their heyday in the 20th century in the United States. In the 1920s Pedro Flores, a Philippine immigrant, started the Flores Yo-Yo Company in California, which sold the yo-yo, its name derived from the Filipino word for “come-come” or “to return.” In 1929 American businessman Donald F. Duncan bought the Flores Yo-Yo Company, developed advertising campaigns, and sent Duncan Yo-Yo professionals to demonstrate tricks in the United States and western Europe. He devised the practice of looping the end of the string around the axle rather than tying it to the axle, making a wide variety of yo-yo tricks possible. In 1932, to help fight off imitators, Duncan trademarked the word yo-yo and held the first International Yo-Yo Competition in London.
Although the toy reached the height of its popularity in the United States in the early 1960s, the yo-yo continued to be purchased into the 21st century. Over time, producers added such features as ball bearings, lights, and sounds.