hey

hey · interjection, verb¹

1. Old English · inherited from*hē
2. Middle English · inherited fromhey
3. English todayhey

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.

hey · noun²

1. French · derived fromhaie“hedge”
2. English todayhey

From French haie (“hedge”), with reference to the weaving patterns used in hedgelaying. Doublet of hedge and quay.

hey · noun³

See he.

Words from the same roots