English

Noun

ey ‎(plural eyren) (obsolete since the sixteenth century)

1. (obsolete) an egg
   • 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.

Derived terms

• Cockney

Etymology 2

From Middle English eie ‎(“fear, terror”), from Old English ege ‎(“fear, terror”), from Proto-Germanic *agaz ‎(“fear, dread”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂egʰ- ‎(“to be depressed, afraid”). In all southern and most northern dialects merged with awe completely. See also beseek and beseech; thrack and thrutch; give and yive; streek and stretch.

Noun

ey ‎(uncountable)

1. (obsolete, regional, rare) Fear, terror.

   To have no ey for nought.‎

   • c1470, O lord omnipotentː

     Exhorting thy people to have a special ey, That thee to praise they never cease.

2. (obsolete, regional, rare) A feeling of fear and reverence.

Verb

ey ‎(third-person singular simple present eys, present participle eying, simple past and past participle eyed)

1. (obsolete, regional, rare) To awe.

References

• The Middle English Dictionary

Etymology 3

Compare eyot.

Noun

ey ‎(plural eys)

1. An island.

Etymology 4

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

Pronunciation

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

Pronoun

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

1. (neologism) they (singular). Gender-neutral third-person singular subject pronoun, 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 examples of usage of this term, see Citations:ey.

Synonyms

• he/she, s/he, (s)he
• (singular) they
• (neologism) e, sie, shi, ze

Coordinate terms

• he, she

Anagrams

• ye, Ye, YE

See also

• other attested and proposed gender-neutral pronouns
• suffix -ey

German

Etymology

From Middle High German ei, a common interjection used, among other things, as a vocative particle. The word is thus of native origin, though in contemporary colloquial German it may well have been reinforced by synonymous Turkish ey.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛɪ̯/

Interjection

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!

Icelandic

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /eiː/
• Rhymes: -eiː

  Homophones: ei, Ey

Noun

ey f ‎(genitive singular eyjar, nominative plural eyjar)

1. island

Declension

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

Middle Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈe.ɨ/

Verb

ey

1. second-person singular present indicative of mynet

Old Norse

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *awjō.

Noun

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

1. island

Declension

Descendants

References

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

Portuguese

Verb

ey

1. Obsolete spelling of hei

Somali

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ei/

Noun

èy m (plural éy or eyo f)

1. dog