Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Used formerly as the title of the governor of Algiers before the French conquest in 1830.
  • noun Used formerly as the title for rulers of the states of Tunis and Tripoli.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A female (sometimes a male) servant who had charge of a dairy and all things pertaining to it; a female servant in general.
  • noun The title of the governor of Algiers under Turkish suzerainty from 1710 till its conquest by the French in 1830.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The governor of Algiers; -- so called before the French conquest in 1830.
  • noun obsolete A servant who has charge of the dairy; a dairymaid.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete A servant who has charge of the dairy; a dairymaid.
  • noun The title given to the ruler of the Regency of Algiers (now Algeria) under the Ottoman Empire.
  • pronoun Eye dialect spelling of they, representing African American Vernacular English.
  • pronoun Eye dialect spelling of there, representing African American Vernacular English.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Turkish dayı, maternal uncle.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English dǣġe, from Proto-Germanic *daigijōn. Cognate with Swedish deja; compare dairy, dough, lady.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French dey, from Turkish dayı.

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