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Ey
Definitions
- 1 Alternative form of hey. alt-of, alternative
"JULIO. (Moves away.) No walking. I told you I’m not walking. / INES. You walked yesterday after the exercises. / JULIO. I can’t today. / INES. Then I’m going outside to smoke! / JULIO. Ey, don’t get angry!"
- 1 Initialism of Ernst & Young. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 1 An egg. obsolete
"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."
- 2 A small island formed by the buildup of silt or gravel at the confluence of two rivers or streams. UK
"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."
- 3 Obsolete form of eye. alt-of, obsolete
- 4 A place that has a name ending in "-ey" because it is or was located at such an island.
"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."
- 1 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. epicene, nominative, nonstandard, rare, singular, third-person
"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."
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English ei, ey, from Old English ǣġ, from Proto-West Germanic *aij, from Proto-Germanic *ajją (“egg”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm (“egg”), probably from *h₂éwis (“bird”), from *h₂ew- (“to consume”). Doublet of egg, huevo, oeuf, and ovum. Cognates Cognate with North Frisian ai (“egg”), Saterland Frisian Oai (“egg”), West Frisian aai, aei (“egg”), Bavarian Oa (“egg”), Dutch ei (“egg”), German Ei (“egg”), German Low German Ai, Ägg (“egg”), Limburgish ei, Éï (“egg”), Luxembourgish Ee (“egg”), Mòcheno oi (“egg”), Vilamovian e (“egg”), Yiddish איי (ey, “egg”), Danish æg (“egg”), Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk egg (“egg”), Swedish ägg (“egg”), Crimean Gothic ada (“egg”); also Breton vi (“egg”), Cornish oy (“egg”), Welsh wy (“egg”), Latin ōvum (“egg”), Greek αβγό (avgó), αυγό (avgó, “egg”), Albanian vo (“egg”), Belarusian and Russian яйцо́ (jajcó, “egg”), Bulgarian яйце́ (jajcé, “egg”), Czech vejce (“egg”), Macedonian јајце (jajce, “egg”), Polish jajo (“egg”), Serbo-Croatian ја́јце, jájce (“egg”), Slovak vajce (“egg”), Slovene jájce (“egg”), Ukrainian яйце́ (jajcé, “egg”), Ossetian айк (ajk), айкӕ (ajkæ, “egg”), Armenian ձու (ju, “egg”), Northern Kurdish hêk (“egg”), Southern Kurdish خا (xa, “egg”), Zazaki hak (“egg”), Pashto هګۍ (hagë́y), ويه (wë́ya, “egg”), Persian خاگ (xâg), خایه (xâye, “egg”). This native English form was displaced by the Old Norse–derived egg in the 16th century.
Coined by Christine M. Elverson in 1975 by removing the "th" from they.
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.
See also for "ey"
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