ey

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 and ovum.

This native English form was displaced by the Old Norse derived egg in the 16th century, most likely due to its clashing with the word eye, wherewith it had come to be a homonym.

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; […]

• Cockney

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

• enPR: ā, IPA^(key): /eɪ/
• Homophone: a
• Rhymes: -eɪ

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, Black, Judie, “Ey has a word for it”, in Chicago Tribune, 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, Worth, Shirley, “New To Yoga”, in alt.yoga, Usenet‎, message-ID <32BDCA0C.6C8@worth.org>:

     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, Dawson, Scott Robert, “Who Pays for Cellular Calls”, in alt.cellular, Usenet‎, message-ID <347acf56.333719@news.interlog.com>:

     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.

• see Appendix:English third-person singular pronouns

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

• YE, Ye, ye

• Audio

  (file)

ey

1. Used to call someone's attention.

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

• IPA^(key): /ɛɪ̯/

• Audio

  (file)

ey

1. (colloquial) used to call someone’s attention

   Ey Peter, komm mal kucken, was hier auf dem Schild steht!

   Hey Peter, come and see what it says on this sign!

• ei

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

• IPA^(key): /eiː/
• Rhymes: -eiː

  Homophones: ei, Ey

ey f (genitive singular eyjar, nominative plural eyjar)

1. island

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

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

• ay, aye, ei, eye, eyȝ
• æȝ (early)

• IPA^(key): /ɛi̯/

ey (plural eyre or eyren)

1. egg (especially of a chicken or other fowl)

   Synonym: eg

• English: ey

• “ei, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Inherited from Old English īeġ, īg, from Proto-West Germanic *auwju, from Proto-Germanic *awjō (“floodplain; island”).

• ei, i, ie, y, ye

• IPA^(key): /ɛi̯/, /iː/

ey

1. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) island

• English: ey

• “ei, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

From Latin ei and Old French ahi, äi.

• ei, i, eygh, eyghe, ye

ey

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

• English: ay
• Scots: ay, ae

• “ei, interj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

ey

1. Alternative form of ay (“always”)

ey (plural eyen)

1. Alternative form of eye (“eye”)

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 quote)

ey

1. to awe

• IPA^(key): /ˈe.ɨ/

ey

1. second-person singular present indicative of mynet

• IPA^(key): /ey̯/, [øy̯]

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

ey

1. always, ever

• ei, æ

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

From Proto-Germanic *awjō.

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

1. island

• Icelandic: ey f, eyja f
• Faroese: oyggj f, oy f
• Norwegian Nynorsk: øy
  • Norwegian Bokmål: øy
• Westrobothnian: öy, oi
• Old Swedish: ø̄
  • Swedish: ö c
• Danish: ø c
  • → English: oe
• Gutnish: oy
• → English: -ey, -ay (in place names)
• → Old Irish: í f
  • Irish: í f

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

ey

1. Obsolete spelling of hei

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

• IPA^(key): /ei/

èy m (plural éy or eyo f)

1. dog

• hey

Borrowed from English hey.

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

¡ey!

1. hey!

   Synonym: eh

• ah
• oh
• hala

• IPA^(key): /ɛj/

ey

1. The vocative particle, used for direct adress

   Ey ahali! Anlatacaklarımı dikkatlice dinleyin!