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

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 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.
  • noun obsolete A servant who has charge of the dairy; a dairymaid.

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

From French dey, from Turkish dayı.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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

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