From Middle Englishye, ȝe, from Old Englishġē(“ye”), the nominative case of the second-person plural personal pronoun, from West Germanic*jīz, variant of Proto-Germanic*jūz(“ye”), from Proto-Indo-European*yūs, *yū́(“ye”), plural of *túh₂. Cognate with Scotsye(“ye”), Saterland Frisianjie, Dutchgij, jij, je(“ye”), Low Germanji, jie(“ye”), Germanihr(“ye”), Danish and SwedishI(“ye”), Icelandicér(“ye”). See also you.
Pronunciation
(UK, US) enPR: yē, IPA(key): /jiː/
Rhymes: -iː
Pronoun
ye (personal pronoun)
(archaic outside Northern England, Cornwall, Ireland, Newfoundland) You (the people being addressed).
Usage notes
Ye was originally used only for the nominative case (as the subject), and only for the second-person plural. Later, ye was used as a subject or an object, either singular or plural, which is the way that you is used today. In modern Hiberno-English usage, ye is used as a subject or an object in the plural, to contrast with you (singular).
Synonyms
(second-person plural):See Thesaurus:y'all
Derived terms
References
Newcastle 1970s, Scott Dobson and Dick Irwin, [2]
Verb
ye (present participleyeyn)
(obsolete)Address a single person by the use of the pronounye instead of thou.
1511, Promptorium Parvulorum (de Worde), sig. M.iiiᵛ/2
Yeyn or sey ye with worshyp, viso.
Synonyms
(address by the pronoun ye):yeet(obsolete)
Antonyms
(address by the pronoun ye):thowt(obsolete)
Etymology 2
From Middle Englishþe. The letter y was sometimes used for þ(“thorn”), a letter which corresponds to modern th, because þ did not exist in the first press typographies, so was replaced using either "th", which replaced it, or "y", which resembled it in Late Medieval and Early Modern Blackletter. Etymological y was for a time distinguished by a dot, ẏ, but the letters were conflated when that was dropped.
Pronunciation
Traditionally pronounced the same as the, but now often mispronounced with the ordinary sound of 〈y〉: IPA(key): /jiː/
Article
ye
(archaic, definite) the
1647, The old deluder, Satan, Act. (cited in American Public School Law, K. Alexander, M. Alexander, 1995)
It being one cheife proiect of ye ould deluder, Satan, to keepe men from the knowledge of Scriptures, as in formr times by keeping ym in an unknowne tongue, so in these lattr times by perswading from ye use of tongues, yt so at least ye true sence & meaning of ye originall might be clouded by false glosses of saint seeming deceivers, yt learning may not be buried in ye church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting or endeavors,—
Ye Olde Medicine Shoppe
Derived terms
ye olde
Etymology 3
Shortened from yes.
Interjection
ye
(slang)Yes.
Etymology 4
From Russianе(je).
Pronoun
ye (pluralyes)
The Cyrillic Russian letter Е, е.
Translations
Anagrams
-ey, ey
Asturian
Verb
ye
third-person singular present indicative of ser
Azerbaijani
Verb
ye
second-person singular imperative positive degree of yemək
Catawba
Noun
ye
man (adult male human), men
person, people
Native American Indian(s)
Usage notes
Catawba nouns do not inflect for number.
Many of Catawba's names for tribes incorporate this word, e.g. yę iswa(“the Catawba”, literally “people of the river”), yę manterą(“the Cherokee”, literally “people born in/on the land”).
The vowel of this word is generally nasalized; this is reflected in different ways or not at all in different transcriptions: ye, yę, yen. Sometimes, an initial i, also nasalized, is found: inyen / įyę.
References
1858, Oscar M. Lieber, Vocabulary of the Catawba Language
1900, Albert S. Gatschet, Grammatic Sketch of the Catawba Language (published in the American Anthropologist)
1942, Frank G. Speck and C. E. Shaeffer, Catawba Kinship and Social Organization
1945, Frank T. Siebert, Jr., Linguistic Classification of Catawba (published in the International Journal of American Linguistics)
Haitian Creole
Etymology
From Frenchest(“is”), third person singular of the indicative present of être(“to be”).
Verb
ye
Form of se used at the end of a phrase, after the predicate and the subject, in that order; to be.
Kimoun ou ye?(“Who are you?”, literally “Who you are?”)
Ido
Etymology
From Esperantoje.
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /je/, /jɛ/
Preposition
ye
to, at, by (preposition used when no other fits the meaning)
Noun
ye (pluralye-i)
The name of the Latin script letter Y/y.
See also
(Latin script letter names) litero; a, be, ce, che, de, e, fe, ge, he, i, je, ke, le, me, ne, o, pe, que, re, se, she, te, u, ve, we, xe, ye, ze(Category: io:Latin letter names)
Japanese
Romanization
ye
Rōmaji transcription of いぇ
Rōmaji transcription of イェ
Mandarin
Romanization
ye
Nonstandard spelling of yē.
Nonstandard spelling of yé.
Nonstandard spelling of yě.
Nonstandard spelling of yè.
Usage notes
English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.
The formal singular usage, following the T-V distinction, was used to address one's superiors, elders or others to whom one might wish to show politeness or respect.
Descendants
Scots: ȝe, ye
English: ye, yee
See also
ȝit(second-person dual pronoun)
References
“ye, (pron.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 16 May 2018.
Etymology 2
From Old Englishēage.
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /ˈiː(ə)/
Noun
yë (pluralyën)
Alternative form of eie
(Can we date this quote by Geoffrey Chaucer and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?), The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue, lines 9–10:
And smale foweles maken melodye, / That slepen al the nyght with open yë.
Etymology 3
From Old Englishþē(“you, thee”), accusative and dative form of þū.
Pronoun
ye
(chiefly Northern dialectal)Alternative form of þe
References
“the, (pron.2)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 5 May 2018.
Norn
Etymology
From Old Norseeigi.
Adverb
ye
(Orkney) not
Novial
Etymology
From Esperantoje.
Preposition
ye
wild card preposition
Pali
Alternative forms
Pronoun
ye
masculine nominative/accusative plural of ya(“who (relative)”)
Scots
Alternative forms
you
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /jiː/, /jɪ/
Pronoun
ye (second person, singular or plural; possessive determineryer, possessive pronounyers, singular reflexiveyersel, plural reflexiveyersel)
you
See also
Spanish
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /ɟ͡ʝe/
Noun
yef (pluralyes)
The name of the Latin-script letter Y.
Synonym:i griega
Usage notes
"Ye" was recommended by the Real Academia Española as a simpler name for the more common "i griega" (literally "Greek i"). Adoption of it has been slow.
Further reading
“ye” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.
Turkish
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /je/
Etymology 1
Noun
ye
The name of the Latin-script letter Y.
See also
(Latin-script letter names)harf; a, be, ce, çe, de, e, fe, ge, yumuşak ge, he, ı, i, je, ke, le, me, ne, o, ö, pe, re, se, şe, te, u, ü, ve, ye, ze