What does “yalla” mean in Arabic?

يلا (yalla) is the pan-Arabic interjection for let’s go, come on, hurry up. It crosses every Arabic dialect line: a Moroccan, an Egyptian, a Lebanese, and a Yemeni speaker all use yalla with the same meaning. The word started as a fast contraction of يا الله (yā Allāh), O God, the way English good-bye came from God be with ye. Over centuries it lost its religious weight and became pure punctuation: yalla, ruḥ (come on, go), yalla bye (okay bye), yalla, akhi (hurry, brother). Israeli Hebrew and modern Greek borrowed it as well.

In this clip, a Yemeni host runs an egg-throwing challenge, urging his nervous opponent on: “يلا اجلس صابر، يلا.”