Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- Archaic The.
- pro. Archaic You.
- pro. Archaic You.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- The personal pronoun of the second person, in the plural number: now commonly applied also (originally with some notion of distinction or compliment, as in the case of the royal we) to a single individual, in place of the singular forms thee and thou—a use resulting in the partial degradation of thou to a term of familiarity or of contempt. Ye is archaic, and little used except in exalted address and poetry. As carefully discriminated, especially in the older English, the nominative and vocative being ye and the dative and accusative you.
- As used without discrimination of case-form between nominative and objective.
- As used for a single subject.
- A Middle English form of yea.
- n. An obsolete variant of eye.
Wiktionary
- pro. dialectal, Northern England, Cornish you (the people being addressed).
- v. obsolete Address a single person by the use of the pronoun ye instead of thou.
- archaic, definite the
GNU Webster's 1913
Etymologies
- 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, ẏ, but the letters were conflated when that was dropped. (Wiktionary)
- Misreading of ye, from Middle English þe, spelling of the, the (using the letter thorn).Middle English, from Old English gē; see yu- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Weel, if ye dinna ken that, said the resolute farmer, ye ken this; ye ken yere whiles obliged to be up our water in the way o your business; now, if ye let me stay quietly here the night wi the Captain, Ise pay ye double fees for the room; and if ye say no, ye shall hae the best sark-fu o sair banes that ever ye had in your life, the first time ye set a foot by Liddel-moat!”
“When ye were encamped on the near side of the valley, and they were on the further side, and the caravan was below you, if ye have made an engagement to _attack_, ye would assuredly have failed the engagement; but _ye were led into action notwithstanding_, that God might accomplish the thing _destined_ to be done.”
“I want ter show ye she's sound's a nut -- _ye won't pay my price ef I doan't_.”
The Continental Monthly , Vol. 2 No. 5, November 1862 Devoted to Literature and National Policy
“Ye mustn't do that agin, sonny; ye must come whether ye've money or no; times is hard, but, I swear, I kin give _ye_ a loaf any time. ”
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2, No 3, September, 1862 Devoted to Literature and National Policy.
“_Obey ye your rulers, or governors_, Heb.xiii. 17; where the words _obey ye_ doth not”
The Divine Right of Church Government by Sundry Ministers Of Christ Within The City Of London
“_Whatsoever_ ye would that men should do to you, do _ye even so to them_.”
“In the second Súra Abu 'Umr reads: "Nor shall ye be questioned concerning that which _they_ have done;" but' Ásim reads: "That which _ye_ have done.”
“I do not serve what ye serve; nor will ye serve what I serve; nor will I serve what ye serve; nor will ye serve what I serve; ye have your religion, and I have my religion!”
“They will ask thee what is lawful for them? say, Lawful for you are good things and what ye have taught beasts of prey (to catch), training them like dogs; ye teach them as God taught you; so eat of what they catch for you, and mention the name of God over it, and fear God, for verily, God is swift in reckoning up.”
“O ye who disbelieve! excuse not yourselves to-day; ye shall only be rewarded for that which ye have done.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ye’.
-
EN - pronunciation fun
All words of the poem
The Chaos
by Gerard Nolst Trenité
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse <...abyss, ache, actual, advice, aerie, age, ague, aisles, alas, alien, alive, allowed and 406 more...
-
Do-it-yourself Christmas Carol List
Tired of singing the same carols year after year? Wanna mix it up a little? Now you can, with the Do-it-yourself Christmas Carol List (from the creator of the Doo-it-yourself Doowop List). Just mix...
let it, reindeer, silent, child, Christmas, got run over by a, mercy mild, winter, joyful, holly, newborn, king and 59 more...
-
Words with unusual spellings or pronu...
Herein are listed words with oddball spellings and words whose pronunciation does not reflect the spelling.
eleemosynary, Wednesday, colonel, posslq, zaqqum, qwerty, cinquefoil, qibla(h), minuscule, Cholmondeley, polyphloisboian, ptisan and 67 more...
-
Irish English that's not in American ...
Well-known phrases in Irish English that aren't understood in American English.
or next offer, hoover, plaster, soother, chimnea, craic, bits and bobs, grinds, jumper, mum, chancer, ticks all the boxes and 60 more...
-
Vowels only. And I mean: ONLY
Words containing no consonants and found in at least one major dictionary.
Foreign words permitted.aa, eau, oui, aiee, I, oo, euouae, eye, you, ye, yo, yay and 17 more...
-
kickassery
words that kick ass, in the non-literal sense
keraunophilia, vituperative, archnemesis, megafauna, Brontotherium, haruspex, vainglory, immanent, tarasque, aurochs, fraktur, photophore and 75 more...
-
Acceptable two-letter Scrabble words
aa, ab, ad, ae, ag, ah, ai, al, am, an, ar, as and 89 more...
-
The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of ...
Words I met while reading Cervantes' story.
lance, hale, lanthorn-jaws, knight-errantry, nay, expostulate, puling, massy, agreeable delusions, pasteboard, bestrid, sallied and 148 more...
-
I Live a (SOWPODS) Hardscrabble Life
aa, ad, ae, ah, ai, am, an, ar, as, at, aw, ax and 168 more...
-
US - national anthem vocabulary
All words and phrases (except the most common articles and prepositions)
For a word frequency analysis see:
air, band, foe, banner, battle, battle's~confusion, beam, blest, blood, blow, bomb, brave and 174 more... -
die6die's Words
somnambulist, obfuscate, hirsute, kleptobibliomania, serendipitous, dissuade, duplicitous, zounds, lo, unleash, fortnight, thaumaturgy and 278 more...
-
2 Letter Scrabble Words
All playable 2 letter Scrabble words from OSPD4
aa, ab, ad, ae, ag, ah, ai, al, am, an, ar, as and 87 more...
-
OSPD4 two-letter words
za, ye, ya, xu, xi, wo, we, ut, us, up, un, um and 88 more...
-
How to Talk Like a Pirate
For use on September 19th.
yar, aye, matey, freebooter, landlubber, ahoy, shiver me timbers, scallawag, yo ho, rapscallion, ye, me and 16 more...
-
My Favorite Monosyllables
What the lady said.
ye, aye, yawp, neep, oy, hie, fie, pi, pie, thai, loom, huh! and 3 more...
-
thou shalt speak English
thee, thy, thou, thine, thyself, art, hast, mayhaps, good gog, shalt, ye, nay and 6 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ye.
jodi IrE: you (plural). AmE dialects have: y'all, yiz, youse, you guys -- but there's no exact non-dialect equivalent. Apr 19, 2011
Eoin In Cork, Ireland, the word "ye" is in common use as the plural of "you." Although it's recognised as not belonging to standard modern English, it is entirely normal to use it in conversation and, in fact, if the word "you" is used as a plural it may cause momentary confusion. I have seen the written form of the word in hand-written notes, letters etc but never in print. I believe this usage may be found in most/all parts of the country but may be less common in other areas. Aug 10, 2009
reesetee True, uselessness. "Archaic The. Misreading of ye, from Middle English þe, spelling of the, (using the letter thorn)."
Also of "you": "Archaic, used nominatively as the plural of thou, esp. in rhetorical, didactic, or poetic contexts, in addressing a group of persons or things): O ye of little faith; ye brooks and hills." And... "Used nominatively for the second person singular, esp. in polite address: Do ye not know me?"
Interesting little word, ye. :-)
Nov 13, 2007
uselessness That's pretty wild. Source? Nov 12, 2007
kewpid This is (was?) actually pronounced 'the'. Nov 10, 2007