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Aby
Definitions
- 1 A village in Aby with Greenfield parish, East Lindsey district, Lincolnshire, England (OS grid ref TL4178).
- 2 A village in south-eastern Ivory Coast.
- 1 The Abyssinian cat.
- 2 Initialism of Archbishop of York. abbreviation, alt-of, informal, initialism
- 1 To pay the penalty for (something); to atone for, to make amends. archaic, transitive
"Foole-hardy Knight, full soone thou shalt aby / This fond reproach, thy body will I hang, [Hee takes down / his pole.] / And loe vpon that string thy teeth shall hang: Prepare thy selfe, for dead soone shalt thou bee"
- 2 make amends for wordnet
- 3 To pay (something) as a penalty, to atone for; to suffer (something). archaic, figuratively, transitive
"Who dyes the vtmoſt dolor doth abye, / But who that liues, is lefte to waile his loſſe: / So life is loſſe, and death felicity."
- 4 To endure or tolerate (something); to experience. transitive
"The muckle black deil was father to the Frasers, a'body kens that; and as for the Gregara, I never could abye the reek of them since I could stotter on two feet."
- 5 To pay for (something); to buy. obsolete, transitive
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- 6 To pay the penalty; to atone. intransitive, obsolete
- 7 To endure; to remain. intransitive, obsolete
"So long as breath, and hable puiſſaunce / Did natiue corage vnto him ſupply, / His pace he freſhly forward did aduaunce, / And carried her beyond all ieopardy, / But nought that wanteth reſt, can long aby."
Etymology
From Middle English abyen, abien, abiggen, from Old English ābyċġan (“to buy; pay for; buy off; requite; recompense; redeem; perform; execute”), from Proto-Germanic *uzbugjaną, equivalent to a- + buy. Cognate with Gothic 𐌿𐍃𐌱𐌿𐌲𐌾𐌰𐌽 (usbugjan). Not related to abide.
From Old Norse á (“river”) + býr (“town”). Literally "Town on a River" or "River Town". Cognate with Swedish Åby and Danish Aaby, both other towns.
A clipping of the word.
See also for "aby"
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