ewe

See also Ewe, and éwé

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

Middle English, from Old English ēowu, from Proto-Germanic *awjōs, oblique form of *awiz (compare Old English eow ‘sheep’), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ówis ‘sheep’ (compare Old Irish oí, Latin ovis, Tocharian B ā(_u)w, Lithuanian avìs ‘ewe’).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /juː/, SAMPA: /ju:/
• Rhymes: -uː
• Homophones: u, yew, you (in all dialects)
• Homophones: hew, hue (in h-dropping dialects)

Noun

ewe (plural ewes or ewe)

1. A female sheep, as opposed to a ram.

Usage notes

• Because of its pronunciation and despite its spelling, this word most commonly takes the indefinite article a rather than an.

Translations

female sheep

Afrikaans: skaapooi (af) Albanian: dele (sq) Armenian: մաքի (mak'i) Breton: dañvadez f. -ed pl. Bulgarian: овца (bg) f. Catalan: ovella f. Czech: ovce (cs) f. Danish: moderfår (da) Dutch: ooi (nl) f. Esperanto: ŝafino (eo) Ewe: alẽnɔ Faroese: ær (fo) f. Finnish: uuhi (fi) French: brebis (fr) f. German: Mutterschaf n., Aue f., Zibbe f., Zicke f. Greek: προβατίνα (el) (provatína) f., αρνάδα (el) (arnáda) f., αμνάδα (el) (amnáda) f. Hebrew: רחל (he) f. (rachél, rakhél) Icelandic: ær (is) f. Italian: pecora (it) f. Japanese: 牝羊, 雌羊 (ja) (めひつじ, mehitsuji)

Latin: ovis (f) Macedonian: овца f. Mandarin: 母羊 (cmn) (mǔyáng) Norwegian: søye (no) c. Old English: ēowu (ang) Polish: owca (pl) f. Portuguese: ovelha (pt) f. Romanian: oita (ro) f. Russian: овца (ovtsa) f., ярка (yarka) f. Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: о́вца (sh) f. Roman: óvca (sh) f. Slovene: ovca (sl) f. Spanish: oveja f., oveja madre f. Swedish: tacka (sv) c. Vietnamese: cuu cai Volapük: jijip (vo) Wolof: xar mu jigéen (wo)

See also

• ram

Anagrams

• eew
• wee

Trivia

Because of its pronunciation, ewe and its homophone you form one of only two homophone pairs in modern English that share no letters in their spelling in common. The other pair is 'I' and "eye", with "aye" also for some dialects.

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Anglo-Norman

Etymology

Old French eve, Latin aqua.

Noun

ewe f. (oblique plural ewes, nominative singular ewe, nominative plural ewes)

1. water
   • (Can we date this quote?) Holkham Bible:

     E caunt ele estoyt de tut chargé
     La ewe vint curant a grant plenté.

     And when it [the Ark] was fully loaded
     the waters ran high and fast.

   • circa 1170, Wace, Le Roman de Rou:

     L'ewe est bele e parfond qui en la cité cort

     The water which runs through the city is beautiful and deep

   • circa 1200, Marie de France, Guigemar:

     En bacins d'or ewe aporterent

     They brought water in basins made of gold

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Finnish

Noun

ewe

1. Ewe (member of a West African ethnic group)
2. Ewe (language)
3. Used also adjectivally with a hyphen or in genitive plural

   ewe-kulttuuri; ewejen kulttuuri

   Ewe culture

   ewe-kansa

   Ewe people

   ewejen kieli

   Ewe language

4. In plural (ewet), the Ewe (ethnic group)

Declension

Declension of ewe (type valo) singular plural nominative ewe ewet genitive ewen ewejen partitive eweä ewejä accusative ewe ewen ewet inessive ewessä eweissä elative ewestä eweistä illative eween eweihin adessive ewellä eweillä ablative eweltä eweiltä allative ewelle eweille essive ewenä eweinä translative eweksi eweiksi instructive – ewein abessive ewettä eweittä comitative – eweineen

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Swedish

Noun

ewe c.

1. Ewe (language)

This Swedish entry was created from the translations listed at Ewe. It may be less reliable than other entries, and may be missing parts of speech or additional senses. Please also see ewe in the Swedish Wiktionary. This notice will be removed when the entry is checked. (more information) April 2008