Wiktionary

ey

See also: -ey, -ey-, EY, əy, and eþ

English

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Etymology 1

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Inherited from Middle English ei, ey, from Old English ǣġ, from Proto-West Germanic *aij, from Proto-Germanic *ajją, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm. Doublet of egg, huevo, oeuf, and ovum.

This native English form was displaced by the Old Norse–derived egg in the 16th century, most likely due to confusion with the homonym eye.

 
A box of ten eyren.

Noun

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ey (plural eyren)

  1. (obsolete) An egg. [dated since the 16th century]
    • 1490, William Caxton, Prologue to Eneydos:
      And one of theym... cam in to an hows and axed for mete and specyally he axyd after eggys, and the goode wyf answerde that she could speke no Frenshe. And the marchaunt was angry, for he also coude speke no Frenshe, but wolde have hadde egges; and she understode hym not. And thenne at laste a-nother sayd that he wolde have eyren. Then the good wyf sayd that she understod hym wel. Loo, what sholde a man in thyse dayes now wryte, egges, or eyren? Certaynly it is hard to playse every man, by-cause of dyversite and chaunge of langage.
    • 1787, originally 1381, Liber quotidianus contrarotulatoris garderobae:
      Take brothe of capons withoute herbes, and breke eyren, and cast into the pot, and make a crudde therof, and colour hit with saffron, and then presse oute the brothe and kerve it on leches; and then take swete creme of almondes, or of cowe mylk, and boyle hit; […]
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Etymology 2

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Coined by Christine M. Elverson in 1975 by removing the "th" from they.

Pronunciation

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Pronoun

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ey (third-person singular, nominative case, accusative em, possessive adjective eir, possessive noun eirs, reflexive emself)

  1. (rare, epicene, nonstandard) A gender-neutral third-person singular subject pronoun, one of the so-called Spivak pronouns, equivalent to the singular they and coordinate with gendered pronouns he and she.
    • 1975 August 23, Judie Black, “Ey has a word for it”, in Chicago Tribune, section 1, page 12:
      Eir sentences would sound smoother since ey wouldn't clutter them with the old sexist pronouns. And if ey should trip up in the new usage, ey would only have emself to blame.
    • 1996 December 22, Shirley Worth, “New To Yoga”, in alt.yoga‎[1] (Usenet), message-ID <[email protected]>:
      I'm not familiar with this book, but I encourage Marksmill to look for it-- and while ey is at it, to also look at a number of other books.
    • 1997 November 25, Scott Robert Dawson, “Who Pays for Cellular Calls”, in alt.cellular‎[2] (Usenet), message-ID <[email protected]>:
      If a mobile user is far from eir home area, ey will pay a long-distance fee for carriage of the call *from* eir home area, just as a caller would pay long-distance on a call *to* that area.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:ey.
Synonyms
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Etymology 3

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Inherited from Middle English ei, i, ie, from Old English ēġ, īġ, īeġ, from Proto-West Germanic *auwju, from Proto-Germanic *awjō (“watery land, floodplain, island”), earlier *agwjō ~ *ahwjō (literally “(that which is) of the water”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ékʷeh₂ (“flowing water”) ‎ *-yeh₂.

Noun

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ey (plural eys)

  1. (UK) A small island formed by the buildup of silt or gravel at the confluence of two rivers or streams.
    • 1927, Essex Naturalist, page 280:
      Now it will be seen that each of the three small streamlets named forms, at its junction with the larger river into which it flows, an ey, or island, of this latter kind — Crip's-ey, Dom's-ey, and Pin's-ey, respectively; and I suggest that, from these three eys, each of the three streams indicated derived the final element of its name.
    • 2009, Julie Wileman, War and Rumours of War, page 81:
      Runnymede Bridge is situated on an 'ey' – a small gravel islet close to the river bank.
  2. A place that has a name ending in "-ey" because it is or was located at such an island.
    • 1888 January 28, Walter de Gray Birch, “WASA, ISIS, OCK”, in Academy and Literature, volume 33, number 821, page 63:
      Among the many eys, eyots, or islands, clustering about Oxford, at or near the confluence of the Isis and Cherwell, viz., Binsey, Botley, Hinksey, Iffley, Osney, Oxey, Pixey, &c., there are two, vis., Osney and Oxey, which manifestly enshrine this rivername.
    • 1924, Arthur Hadrian Allcroft, Downland Pathways, page 76:
      In Saxon the word ey meant peninsula as well as island, and there are plenty of other eys about —Langney and Hydeney and Horsey to wit, Chilly and Rickney and Northeye and Mountney.
    • 2018, Bob Gilbert, Ghost Trees: Nature and People in a London Parish:
      Bermondsey, Stepney, Hackney; there are many of these 'eys' in London and they were all once islands, or higher, dryer points in the surrounding marshlands.
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Etymology 4

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Noun

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ey (plural eys)

  1. Obsolete form of eye.

See also

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  • suffix -ey
  • ey up (probably etymologically unrelated)

Anagrams

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Azerbaijani

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Pronunciation

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  • Audio:(file)

Interjection

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ey

  1. Used to call someone's attention.

German

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Etymology

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Derived from Middle High German ei, a common interjection. In contemporary German possibly reinforced by Turkish ey (“vocative particle”), English hey.

Pronunciation

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Interjection

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ey (colloquial, originally youth slang)

  1. Used to call someone's attention, or as an intensifier when placed at the end.
    Boah, ey!
    (Whoa), man!
    Ey Peter, komm mal kucken, was hier auf dem Schild steht!
    Hey Peter, check out what this sign here says!
    • 2016 April 8, Jenni Zylka, quoting Udo Lindenberg, “Echo-Verleihung: Preis, der es jedem recht machen will”, in Die Tageszeitung: taz‎[3], →ISSN:
      Der unkorrumpierbare Udo Lindenberg, der seinen „Bestes Video national“-Gewinn galant mit „Geilomat, ey“ kommentierte […]
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
  2. Expresses indignation or disgust; oi
    Ey, lass den Scheiß! So geht man nicht mit anderen Leuten um.
    Oi, quit that shit! That is not how you treat other people.

See also

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Icelandic

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Icelandic Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia is

Etymology

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Derived from Old Norse ey, from Proto-Germanic *awjō.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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ey f (genitive singular eyjar, nominative plural eyjar)

  1. island

Declension

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Declension of ey (feminine)
singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative ey eyin eyjar eyjarnar
accusative ey eyna eyjar eyjarnar
dative ey eynni eyjum eyjunum
genitive eyjar eyjarinnar eyja eyjanna

The dative singular eyju/eyjunni also occurs, but is on its own indistinguishable from the dative of the weak form eyja.

Kankanaey

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Etymology 1

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Borrowed from Tagalog ey, from English ay, the English name of the letter A/a.

Pronunciation

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  • (Standard Kankanaey) IPA(key): /ˈʔej/ [ˈʔei̯]
  • Rhymes: -ej
  • Syllabification: ey

Noun

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ey

  1. The name of the Latin-script letter A/a.
See also
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Etymology 2

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Pronunciation

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  • (Standard Kankanaey) IPA(key): /ˈʔəj/ [ˈʔɨi̯]
  • Rhymes: -əj
  • Syllabification: ey

Interjection

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ëy

  1. An interjection beginning each strophe in daing songs

Noun

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ëy

  1. act of carrying, transporting, moving
Derived terms
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References

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  • Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino (2016) Ortograpiya di Kankanaëy [Kankanaey Orthography]‎[4] (in Kankanaey and Tagalog), →ISBN, pages 10-11
  • Morice Vanoverbergh (1933) “ey”, in A Dictionary of Lepanto Igorot or Kankanay. As it is spoken at Bauco (Linguistische Anthropos-Bibliothek; XII)‎[5], Mödling bei Wien, St. Gabriel, Österreich: Verlag der Internationalen Zeitschrift „Anthropos“, →OCLC, page 153
  • Allen, Larry (2021) “ey”, in Kankanaey – English Dictionary‎[6], Summer Institute of Linguistics

Middle English

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Etymology 1

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Inherited from Old English æġ, from Proto-West Germanic *aij, from Proto-Germanic *ajją, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm (“egg”). Doublet of egge.

Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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ey (plural eyre or eyren)

  1. egg (especially of a chicken or other fowl)
    Synonym: eg
Descendants
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  • English: ey (obsolete)

References

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Etymology 2

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Derived from Latin ei and Old French ahi, äi.

Alternative forms

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Interjection

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ey

  1. An exclamation of surprise, challenge, or inquiry.
Descendants
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References

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Etymology 3

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Adverb

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ey

  1. Alternative form of ay (“always”)

Etymology 4

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Noun

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ey (plural eyen)

  1. Alternative form of eye (“eye”)

Etymology 5

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Noun

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ey (uncountable)

  1. Alternative form of eye (“fear; awe”)
    To have no ey for nought.
    (please add an English translation of this usage example)
    • c. 1470, O lord omnipotent:
      Exhorting thy people to have a special ey, That thee to praise they never cease.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Verb

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ey

  1. to awe

Middle Welsh

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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ey

  1. second-person singular present indicative of mynet

Old Norse

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Derived from Proto-Germanic *aiwaz m, *aiwō f (“long time, age, eternity”), itself from Proto-Indo-European *h₂óyu ~ *h₂yéws. Cognate of Proto-Finnic *auvo.

Adverb

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ey

  1. always, ever
Alternative forms
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References

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  • “ey1”, in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Etymology 2

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Inherited from Proto-Germanic *awjō.

Noun

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ey f (genitive eyjar, dative eyju, plural eyjar)

  2. island
Declension
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  Declension of ey (strong jō-stem)
feminine singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative ey eyin eyjar eyjarnar
accusative ey eyna eyjar eyjarnar
dative ey, eyju eynni, eyjunni eyjum eyjunum
genitive eyjar eyjarinnar eyja eyjanna
Alternative forms
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  • ᚢ (u) — runic
Descendants
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  • Icelandic: ey f, eyja f
  • Faroese: oyggj f, oy f
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: øy
    • Norwegian Bokmål: øy
  • Old Swedish: ø̄
    • Swedish: ö c
  • Danish: ø c
    • → English: oe
  • Gutnish: oy
  • → Old Irish: í f
    • Irish: í f
  • ⇒ Old Norse: -ey (indicating island names)
    • → English: -ey, -ay (in place names)

References

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  • “ey2”, in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Etymology 3

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Inherited from Proto-Norse ᚨᚢᛃᚨ (auja), itself from Proto-Germanic *aują n, itself from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew- (“enjoy”). Related to auð- (“easy, easily”), from Proto-Germanic *auþuz (“easy”), whence Old English ieþe (“easy”).

Noun

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ey n

  2. (hapax) luck, fortune
    • In a prayer towards the Cross recorded in Landnámabók
      Gótt ey gǫmlum mǫnnum, gótt ey ungum mǫnnum.
      Good fortune to old men, good fortune to young men.
Declension
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  Declension of ey (strong ja-stem)
neuter singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative ey eyit ey eyin
accusative ey eyit ey eyin
dative eyi eyinu eyjum eyjunum
genitive eys eysins eyja eyjanna

References

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  • ey ‘good fortune’ at the Dictionary of Old Norse Prose

Portuguese

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Verb

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ey

  1. Obsolete spelling of hei.

Somali

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Etymology

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(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

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Noun

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èy m (plural éy or eyo f)

  1. dog

Spanish

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English hey.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈei/ [ˈei̯]
  • Rhymes: -ei
  • Syllabification: ey

Interjection

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¡ey!

  1. hey!
    Synonym: eh
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Further reading

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Swedish

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Etymology

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Perhaps borrowed from Turkish ey (vocative article).

Interjection

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ey

  1. (slang) Used to call someone's attention.
    Ey, mannen, vi gittar!
    Hey, man, let's get out of here!

See also

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  • hej (has a list of greetings and farewells)

References

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Tagalog

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English ay, the English name of the letter A/a.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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ey (Baybayin spelling ᜁᜌ᜔)

  1. the name of the Latin-script letter A/a, in the Filipino alphabet
    Synonym: a

See also

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Further reading

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  • “ey”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018

Anagrams

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Turkish

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Etymology

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Compare Azerbaijani ey.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ej/
  • Hyphenation: ey

Interjection

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ey

  1. vocative particle
    Ey Türk gençliği! Birinci vazifen, Türk istiklâlini, Türk Cumhuriyeti'ni, ilelebet muhafaza ve müdafaa etmektir.
    O Turkish youth! Your first duty is to conserve and to defend forever Turkish independence and the Turkish Republic.
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