Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In Hawaii and Tahiti, the common yam, Dioscorea sativa. Before the introduction of the potato it was cultivated for the supply of ships.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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_ all day long at each step of the animal -- with variations of _hoi, hoi, hoi, hoi_, when the mule went a little quicker, and significant loud shrieks of _uppeppé, uppeppé, uppeppé_ when the animal began to trot, giving the rider an extra pang.
Across Unknown South America Arnold Henry Savage Landor 1894
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_hoi, hoi, hoi, hoi_! sounding exactly like some one calling for help, and at times so real that I was ready to awaken Mercer and ask him if he thought it was a bird; but just as I had determined to do so, he spoke half drowsily from his pillow.
Burr Junior George Manville Fenn 1870
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The term hoi philoi is to be distinguished from that of philoi tou theou
The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries 1851-1930 1908
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There is, in fact, no such independent word as hoi in English — there is only the term hoi polloi, which functions not as two words but as one, the sense of which is basically “commoners” or “rabble.”
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No, what happens next is some pedant comes along and points out that "hoi" is Greek for
Sadly, No! 2008
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No, what happens next is some pedant comes along and points out that "hoi" is Greek for
Sadly, No! 2008
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The “hoi” in hoi polloi is, interestingly enough, a definite article that approximates the meaning of “the” in English.
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I agree, Skyler, except now you've got a problem with the word hoi polloi.
"Morally speaking, what [Bob] Novak was doing here is no better than walking down a crowded street with his handgun, firing off .22 rounds at random." Ann Althouse 2008
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Perhaps writers such as Dryden and Byron understood that English and Greek are two different languages, and that, whatever its literal meaning in Greek, hoi does not mean “the” in English.
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Evidently the natural term hoi philoi did not gain currency in the catholic church, owing to the fact that hoi adelphoi (cp. above, pp. 405 f.) was preferred as being still more inward and warm.
The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries 1851-1930 1908
Logophile77 commented on the word hoi
Eye dialect spelling of hi. See foine.
May 4, 2018