Ye
Pronunciation
- RP & US IPA: /jiË/
- Rhymes: -iË
Origin 1
From Middle English ye, Èe, from Old English Ä¡Ä“ ("ye"), the nominative case of the second-person plural personal pronoun, from *jÄ«z, variant of Proto-Germanic *jÅ«z ("ye"), from Proto-Indo-European *yÅ«s ("ye"), *yÅ«Ì, plural of *túhâ‚‚. Cognate with Scots ye ("ye"), Dutch gij, jij, je ("ye"), Low German ji, jie ("ye"), German ihr ("ye"), Danish and Swedish I ("ye"), Icelandic ér ("ye"). See also you.
Alternative forms
- Èe chiefly in Middle English
Full definition of ye
Pronoun
ye
(personal pronoun)- (dialectal, Northern England, Cornwall, Irish or archaic) 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.
Verb
- (obsolete) address a single person by the use of the pronoun ye instead of thou.
- 1483, Catholicon Anglicum: An English–Latin Wordbook (Monson 168), page 426To Èe, vosare jn plurali numero vos vestrum vel tibi read vobis.
- 1511, Promptorium Parvulorum (de Worde), sig. M.iiiáµ›/2Yeyn or sey ye with worshyp, viso.
Synonyms
- (address by the pronoun ye) yeet obsolete
Antonyms
- (address by the pronoun ye) thowt obsolete
Pronunciation
- Traditionally pronounced the same as the, but now often pronounced with the ordinary sound of <y>: IPA: /jiË/
Origin 2
From Middle English þe. The letter y is a variant of þ ("thorn"), a letter which corresponds to modern th, but letter þ did not exist in first press typographies, so was replaced using either "th" or "y". Etymological y was for a time distinguished by a dot, áº, but the letters were conflated when that was dropped.
Article
article
- (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 'y
- Ye Olde Medicine Shoppe.