wee

• enPR: wē, IPA^(key): /wiː/

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• Rhymes: -iː
• Homophones: oui, we, whee (in accents with the wine-whine merger), Wii

From Middle English wey, weygh, wegh, weȝe, wæȝe (“little bit”), from Old English wǣġ, wǣġe (“weight”), from Proto-West Germanic *wāgu, from Proto-Germanic *wēgō (“scales, weight”) and *wēgǭ (“weight”), related to Middle English weġan (“to move, weigh”) (15c).

wee (comparative weer, superlative weest)

1. (Scotland, Ireland, Northern England, New Zealand) Small, little.
   • 1907, Barbara Baynton, Sally Krimmer; Alan Lawson, editors, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 275:

     The beat of its wee heart held against her own, sent her intense maternity surging like the spring sap in a young tree.

   • 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin 2009, p. 73:

     I had not seen a wee boy do it like that before. He was weer than me and his swimming was just like splashing about.

   You looked a little cold, so I lit a wee fire.

wee

1. A short time or short distance.

• Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary: Tenth Edition (1997)

Onomatopoeic for the sound of urination. The noun derives from the verb.

wee (countable and uncountable, plural wees)

1. (colloquial, uncountable) Urine.
2. (colloquial, countable) An act of urination.

   I need to have a wee

• (all senses): wee-wee
• (urine): See Thesaurus:urine
• (urination): See Thesaurus:urination

wee (third-person singular simple present wees, present participle weeing, simple past and past participle weed)

1. (UK, colloquial) To urinate.

   I need to wee! I can't hold it any longer!

• wee-wee, see also Thesaurus:urinate

• wee-wee

• see we

wee (personal pronoun)

1. obsolete emphatic of we
   • 1645 Marhc, John Milton, Tetrachordon.

     Yet lest wee should be Capernaitans, as wee are told there that the flesh profiteth nothing, so wee are told heer, if we be not as deaf as adders, that this union of the flesh proceeds from the union of a fit help and solace.

• Ewe, eew, ewe

• IPA^(key): /ˈweː/
• Hyphenation: wee

wée (autobenefactive weyité)

1. (transitive) lack
2. (transitive) miss
3. (auxiliary) Used to form the negative of some moods and aspects.

• E. M. Parker; R. J. Hayward (1985), “wee”, in An Afar-English-French dictionary (with Grammatical Notes in English), University of London, →ISBN
• Mohamed Hassan Kamil (2015) L’afar: description grammaticale d’une langue couchitique (Djibouti, Erythrée et Ethiopie)‎, Paris: Université Sorbonne Paris Cité (doctoral thesis)

From Old Dutch *wē, from Proto-West Germanic *wai, from Proto-Germanic *wai.

Compare Old English wā (English woe), Old High German wē (German weh), Old Norse vei.

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  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ʋeː/
• Rhymes: -eː

wee (not comparable)

1. nauseating

wee f (plural weeën, diminutive weetje n)

1. contraction during labour or childbirth

   De weeën beginnen!

   The contractions are starting!

2. (archaic) sorrow, sadness, pain, woe (used in interjections of despair or annoyance)

   O wee, wat zal er van ons worden.

   Oh woe, what shall become of us.

• (sorrow): o wee, ach en wee, heimwee

• Ewe

wee (second person singular)

1. Alternative spelling of we (“you, thou”)

From Old Dutch *wē, from Proto-West Germanic *wai.

• IPA^(key): /weː/

wêe

1. woe!

• Dutch: wee

wêe

1. unpleasant, painful

This adjective needs an inflection-table template.

• Dutch: wee

wêe f

1. pain

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• Dutch: wee
• Limburgish: wieë

• “wee”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929), “wee (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page I

wee

1. Alternative form of we (“woe”)

From Old English wēġ(e), wǣġ (unit of weight).

• IPA^(key): /wiː/

wee (comparative weer, superlative weest)

1. (standard, Ulster) small, little, tiny

From Middle English wiþ, from Old English wiþ.

• wie, wi, wi', w', wough

wee

1. with

wee

1. Alternative form of wough (“we”)
   • 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY:

     Note will wee dra aaght to-die?

     I don't know will we draw any to-day?

• Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, page 59 & 77

Clipping of ìwé. Cognates with Yoruba èyí, Ìkálẹ̀ Yoruba ìyí

• IPA^(key): /wèé/

wèé

1. (Ijebu) this

• ìwé (“this”)
• ọ̀wọ̀nwé (“these”)
• wọ̀nwé (“this”)
• ọ̀wọ̀nyẹ̀n (“those”)
• wọ̀nyẹ̀n (“those”)
• ìyẹ̀n (“that”)
• yẹ̀n (“that”)