It comes from Latin iactare meaning “to cast”. Over time the c was dropped as French evolved and the i shifted to a y consonant and we get yeter. Once it was borrowed into English it further changed as the -er was dropped and short e became a long ee following the great vowel shift.
I am lying but most of those bits are facts and I’m actually describing the etymology of jet. Also the proto Indo European ye is hilariously uncanny.