hey
English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]- enPR: hā, IPA(key): /heɪ/
Audio (US): (file) Audio (General Australian): (file) - Homophone: hay
- Rhymes: -eɪ
Etymology 1
[edit]From Middle English hey, hei, also without h- in ey, from Old English *hē, ēa (interjection), attested as first element in hēlā, ēalā (“O!, alas!, oh!, lo!”). Cognate with Dutch hé, hei (“hi, hey”), German hei (“hey, wow”), Danish and Swedish hej (“hello, hey”), Faroese hey (“hey, hello”), Old Norse, Icelandic and Norwegian hei (“hey”), Polish hej (“hey, hello”), Romanian hei, Russian эй (ej, “hey”); see heigh. Probably a natural expression, as may be inferred from its presence with similar meaning in many other unrelated languages: for example, Burmese ဟေး (he:), Finnish hei, Unami hè, and Mandarin 哎 (āi), and various sound-alikes as Ancient Greek εἶα (eîa) and Latin eia, eho, Sanskrit हे (he). See also hello.
Alternative forms
[edit]Interjection
[edit]hey
- An exclamation to get attention.
- Hey, look at this!
- Hey! Listen!
- A protest or reprimand.
- Hey! Stop that!
- An expression of surprise.
- Hey! This is new!
- (chiefly US) An informal greeting, similar to hi.
- Hey! How's it going?
- A request for repetition or explanation; an expression of confusion.
- Hey? How's that?
- Used as a tag question, to emphasise what goes before or to request that the listener express an opinion about what has been said.
- 1900, Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim, page vi. 54:
- "Who 's a cur - now - hey?"
- A meaningless beat marker or extra, filler syllable in song lyrics.
- The chorus is "nana na na, nana na na hey hey hey, goodbye".
Synonyms
[edit]- (exclamation to get attention): oi, yo; see also Thesaurus:hey
- (expression of surprise): blimey, gee whiz, yowzah; see also Thesaurus:wow
- (for repetition or explanation): eh, huh
- (informal greeting): hi, howdy, wotcher; see also Thesaurus:hello
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]
|
|
|
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
|
See also
[edit]- huh
- hay is for horses
hey on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Etymology 2
[edit]From French haie (“hedge”), with reference to the weaving patterns used in hedgelaying. Doublet of hedge.
Noun
[edit]hey (plural heys)
- (country dancing) A choreographic figure in which three or more dancers weave between one another, passing by left and right shoulder alternately.
Translations
[edit]Etymology 3
[edit]See he.
Noun
[edit]hey (plural heys)
- Alternative spelling of he (“Hebrew letter”)
See also
[edit]- Yah-ta-hey (etymologically unrelated)
Anagrams
[edit]Faroese
[edit]Etymology
[edit](This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Pronunciation
[edit]Interjection
[edit]hey
- hi, hey, hello
- Synonyms: halló, góðan morgun, góðan dag, gott kvøld
- Antonyms: farvæl, vit síggjast
- hey aftur! ― hello again!
Icelandic
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Old Norse hey, from Proto-Germanic *hawją.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]hey n (genitive singular heys, nominative plural hey)
- (usually uncountable) hay
Declension
[edit]Middle English
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]From Old English hīġ, hīeġ, from Proto-West Germanic *hawi, from Proto-Germanic *hawją (“hay”).
Noun
[edit]hey (uncountable)
Alternative forms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]References
[edit]- “hei, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Etymology 2
[edit]From Old English *hē, ēa. See English hey for more.
Interjection
[edit]hey
Alternative forms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]References
[edit]- “hei, interj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Etymology 3
[edit]Noun
[edit]hey
- Alternative form of heye (“hedge”)
Etymology 4
[edit]Noun
[edit]hey (uncountable)
- Alternative form of hye (“haste”)
Etymology 5
[edit]Pronoun
[edit]hey
- Alternative form of he (“he”)
Etymology 6
[edit]Pronoun
[edit]hey
- Alternative form of he (“they”)
Etymology 7
[edit]Verb
[edit]hey (third-person singular simple present heyeth, present participle heyende, heyynge, first-/third-person singular past indicative and past participle heyed)
- Alternative form of heien (“to lift up”)
Etymology 8
[edit]Pronoun
[edit]hey (comparative heyer, superlative heyest)
- Alternative form of heigh (“high”)
Portuguese
[edit]Verb
[edit]hey
Somali
[edit]Verb
[edit]hey
Spanish
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Unadapted borrowing from English hey.
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /ˈei/ [ˈei̯]
- Syllabification: hey
- IPA(key): (imitating English) /ˈxei/ [ˈxei̯]
- Rhymes: -ei
Interjection
[edit]¡hey!
Related terms
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- “hey”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
Yola
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]Noun
[edit]hey
- Alternative form of hea (“he”)
Etymology 2
[edit]Noun
[edit]hey
- Alternative form of hye (“hay”)
- 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 46:
- Chourch hey;
- Church yard;
References
[edit]- Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 45
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English terms with homophones
- Rhymes:English/eɪ
- Rhymes:English/eɪ/1 syllable
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English lemmas
- English interjections
- English terms with usage examples
- American English
- English terms with quotations
- English terms derived from French
- English doublets
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English greetings
- Faroese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Faroese lemmas
- Faroese interjections
- Faroese terms with usage examples
- Faroese phrasebook
- Faroese greetings
- Icelandic terms inherited from Old Norse
- Icelandic terms derived from Old Norse
- Icelandic terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Icelandic terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Icelandic 1-syllable words
- Icelandic terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Icelandic/eiː
- Rhymes:Icelandic/eiː/1 syllable
- Icelandic lemmas
- Icelandic nouns
- Icelandic neuter nouns
- Icelandic countable nouns
- Icelandic uncountable nouns
- Middle English terms inherited from Old English
- Middle English terms derived from Old English
- Middle English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- Middle English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- Middle English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Middle English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- Middle English uncountable nouns
- Middle English interjections
- Middle English pronouns
- Middle English verbs
- Middle English adjectives
- enm:Agriculture
- enm:Grasses
- Middle English greetings
- Portuguese non-lemma forms
- Portuguese verb forms
- Portuguese terms spelled with Y
- Portuguese obsolete forms
- Somali lemmas
- Somali verbs
- Spanish terms borrowed from English
- Spanish unadapted borrowings from English
- Spanish terms derived from English
- Spanish 1-syllable words
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Spanish/ei
- Rhymes:Spanish/ei/1 syllable
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish interjections
- Spanish greetings
- Yola lemmas
- Yola nouns
- Yola terms with quotations