According to YAOI started out as an insult for doujinshi writers, making fun of their inexperience and low quality work:
YA = yama nashi = no climax
O = occhi nashi = no point/resolution
I = imi nashi = no meaning.
However, a doujinshi circle ironically adopted the name, and it stuck. Today, YAOI has a new meaning that references its association with overtly sexual m/m work:
YA = yamete = Stop
O = oshiri = My butt
I - itai = hurts
Source:
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/YaoiSo yeah that's a thing.
Messages
I- STOP MY BUTT HURTS OK THEN
YAOI MEANS STOP MY BUTT HURTS AHAHAHHA I FEEL SO ENLIGHTED
Wow. I. Am. Enlightened.. ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶
The ya o i part got me dead
gotta learn something new everyday
My life is complete now that i have this knowledge. (〜￣△￣)〜
I found out thanks to Joey (theamineman) lol about the actual meaning but the new meaning is news to me & I could not be prouder that my fellow fujoshi(s) are so clever & creative!!! <3 (๑•ㅂ•)و✧
Yeah, I learned about that on Aestheticism.net about 15+ years ago. They called it "No peak, no point, no meaning." & it referred to porn doujinshis that had no story, whereas the term is now all-encompassing. Around that time, I noticed that googling in Japanese for Shounen Ai only yielded results for manga from the 70s while BL got you exactly what you were looking for; shipping webrings. I miss webrings....
Now they call it BL. Since BL doesn't immediately make people think PWP.
BL is the new term for shounen ai, not yaoi.
No, in Japan, it's all called BL. (Also in South Korea and China)
Primarily the distinctions were kept here to identify whether or not a series has sex in it or not. Japanese sites like Pixiv will just make the destinction by BL vs BL18. Every time the west gets used to a term, Japan replaces it with something else. I still remember forum arguments on BL vs Shounenai. In the end, it probably would be best to call it BL18 & just have yaoi refer to smut series & doujinshis.