ye

ye · pronoun¹

1. Proto-Indo-European · inherited from*yúHs“ye”
2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*jūz“ye”
3. Proto-Germanic · derived from*jīz
4. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*jiʀ
5. Old English · inherited fromġē“ye”
6. Middle English · inherited fromye
7. English todayye

From Middle English ye, ȝe, from Old English ġē (“ye”), the nominative case of the second-person plural personal pronoun, from Proto-West Germanic *jiʀ, from Proto-Germanic *jīz, a North-West variant of Proto-Germanic *jūz (“ye”), from Proto-Indo-European *yúHs (“ye”), plural of *túh₂. Cognate with Scots ye (“ye”), Saterland Frisian jie, Dutch gij, ge, jij, je (“ye”), Low German ji, jie (“ye”), German ihr (“ye”), Danish and Swedish I (“ye”), Icelandic ér (“ye”), Latvian jūs (“ye”), Sanskrit यूयम् (yūyám, “ye”). See also you.

ye · article²

1. Middle English · inherited fromþe
2. English todayye

From Middle English þe. Early press typographies in late 15th century lacked the letter þ (“thorn”), for which the letter y was substituted due to their resemblance in blackletter hand (etymological y was for a while distinguished by a dot, ẏ (14th c.–15th c.)). Short form yͤ continued long after the digraph th had replaced þ elsewhere. "Ye" for "þe" continued in manuscripts through the 18th century. The practice was revived in the United Kingdom in the 19th century as a deliberate antiquarianism in shop names, thus the Ye Olde ... Shoppe construction.

ye · interjection³

Shortened from yes or yeah.

ye · noun⁴

1. Russian · borrowed fromе
2. English todayye

From Russian е (je).

Ye · proper noun⁵

Romanization of the Chinese surname 葉 /叶 (Yè).

Ye · proper noun⁶

Clipping of Kanye.

Words from the same roots