ey

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English ey, from Old English ǣġ ("egg"; ǣġru in the plural), from Proto-Germanic *ajją, *ajjaz (“egg”), from Proto-Indo-European *ōuyo-, *h₂ōwyóm (“egg”). Cognate with West Frisian aai (“egg”), Dutch ei (“egg”), German Low German Ei (“egg”), German Ei (“egg”), Danish æg (“egg”), Swedish ägg (“egg”), Icelandic egg (“egg”), Scottish Gaelic ugh (“egg”), Latin ōvum (“egg”). Was replaced by egg in the 16th century.

Noun

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

1. (obsolete) an egg

Etymology 2

Compare eyot.

Noun

ey (plural eys)

1. An island.

Etymology 3

Wikipedia

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”, Chicago Tribune, 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”, alt.yoga, Usenet:

     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”, alt.cellular, Usenet:

     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 the citations page.

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

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Icelandic

Wikipedia ^is

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

declension of ey

f-s1	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	ey	eyin	eyjar	eyjarnar
accusative	ey	eyna	eyjar	eyjarnar
dative	ey	eynni	eyjum	eyjunum
genitive	eyjar	eyjarinnar	eyja	eyjanna

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

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Old Norse

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *awjō.

Noun

ey f (genitive eyjar, plural eyjar)

1. island

Declension

Declension of ey

	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	ey	eyin	eyjar	eyjarnar
Accusative	ey	eyina	eyjar	eyjarnar
Dative	eyju	eyjunni	eyjum	eyjunum
Genitive	eyjar	eyjarinnar	eyja	eyjanna

Descendants

• Danish: ø c
• Faroese: oyggj f
• Icelandic: ey f

• Norwegian Bokmål: øy f, m
• Norwegian Nynorsk: øy f
• Swedish: ö c

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Portuguese

Verb

ey

1. Obsolete spelling of hei.

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Somali

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ei/

Noun

èy m (plural éy or eyo f)

1. dog