dey

See also: Dey and deþ

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /deɪ/
• Rhymes: -eɪ
• Homophone: day

Etymology 1

(deprecated template usage) From Middle English deye, deie, daie, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old English dǣġe (“maker of bread; baker; dairy-maid”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Germanic *daigijǭ (“kneader of bread, maid”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- (“to knead, form, build”). Cognate with Swedish deja, Icelandic deigja (“dairy-maid”); compare dairy, dough, lady.

Alternative forms

• daie, deie, deye

Noun

dey (plural deys)

1. (UK dialectal, Scotland) A servant who has charge of the dairy; a dairymaid.

Etymology 2

From French dey, from Turkish dayı.

Noun

dey (plural deys)

1. (historical) The ruler of the Regency of Algiers (now Algeria) under the Ottoman Empire.
   • 1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York Review Books 2006, p. 29:

     […] the reigning Dey of Algiers (half of whose twenty-eight predecessors are said to have met violent ends) lost his temper with the French consul, struck him in the face with a fly-whisk, and called him ‘a wicked, faithless, idol-worshipping rascal’.

Etymology 3

Pronoun

dey

1. Eye dialect spelling of they, representing African-American Vernacular English.
2. Eye dialect spelling of there, representing African-American Vernacular English. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

References

• “dey”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “dey”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• Dye, d'ye, dye, ye'd, yed

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Icelandic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /teiː/
• Rhymes: -eiː

Verb

dey

1. inflection of deyja:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

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Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English dæġ.

Noun

dey

1. Alternative form of day

Etymology 2

From Old Norse þeir.

Pronoun

dey

1. Alternative form of þei

Etymology 3

From Old French de.

Noun

dey

1. Alternative form of dee

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Nigerian Pidgin

Alternative forms

• deh

Etymology

From English there.

Verb

dey

1. is, are