ye
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(THē, yē) 
def.art. Archaic
The.
ye2 (yē)
pron.
def.art. Archaic
The.
[Misreading of ye, from Middle English þe, spelling of the, the (using the letter thorn).]
USAGE NOTE In an attempt to seem quaint or old-fashioned, many store signs such as "Ye Olde Coffee Shoppe" use spellings that are no longer current. The word ye in such signs looks identical to the archaic second plural pronoun ye, but it is in fact not the same word. Ye in "Ye Olde Coffee Shoppe" is just an older spelling of the definite article the. The y in this ye was never pronounced (y) but was rather the result of improvisation by early printers. In Old English and early Middle English, the sound (TH) was represented by the letter thorn (þ). When printing presses were first set up in England in the 1470s, the type and the typesetters all came from Continental Europe, where this letter was not in use. The letter y was used instead because in the handwriting of the day the thorn was very similar to y. Thus we see such spellings as ye for the,yt or yat for that, and so on well into the 19th century. However, the modern revival of the archaic spelling of the has not been accompanied by a revival of the knowledge of how it was pronounced, with the result that (yē) is the usual pronunciation today.
ye2 (yē)
pron.
- (used with a pl. verb) Archaic. You.
- (used with a sing. verb) Archaic. You.
[Middle English, from Old English gē.]
a pseudo-archaic form of the definite article the, is used commercially in names such as ye olde tea-shoppe. Though pronounced yee, its first letter represents an old runic letter called 'thorn' (pronounced dh as in modern this), which in written form had come to resemble the letter y.
| y and i, Yiddish words in English, Yankee | |
| yeah, year, yes |
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Look up ye in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Ye can refer to:
- Ye (pronoun), a form of the second-person, personal pronoun "you"
- Ye (surname), a Chinese surname
- an archaic spelling of the definite article "þe" ("the"), used by early printers when the obsolescent letter "þ" was not available. See thorn (letter)
- Ye (Cyrillic) (Е), a Cyrillic letter
- Ukrainian Ye (Є), a Cyrillic letter
- Ye (Korea), an ancient Korean kingdom
- Ye, a short from Yeezy, a nickname of rapper Kanye West
In places:
- Ye, ancient China, a city in ancient China
- Yé, Lanzarote, a village on the island of Lanzarote
- Ye, Myanmar, a small town located on the southern coast of Burma
- Ye County, in Henan, China
- Ye River, a river in Burma
As an abbreviation:
 |
This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
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Dansk (Danish)
1.
pron. - I, eder
idioms:
- Ye gods I guder
2.
det. - the; den
Nederlands (Dutch)
gij(lieden)/u, de (ouderwets)
Français (French)
1.
pron. - vous (pron. personnel pluriel)
idioms:
- Ye gods Grand Dieu (excl)
2.
det. - le/la/les (arch)
Deutsch (German)
1.
pron. - Ihr, Euch, Du, der, die, das
idioms:
- Ye gods Ausruf des Erstaunens
2.
det. - (obs.) der, die, das
Ελληνική (Greek)
pron. - εσύ, εσείς
idioms:
- Ye gods Ω θεοί!
Italiano (Italian)
voi, tu, il, gli
idioms:
- Ye gods! oh cielo!
Português (Portuguese)
pron. - vocês (arcaico)
idioms:
- Ye gods! Meu Deus!
idioms:
- Ye gods! О боги!
Español (Spanish)
1.
pron. - vosotros, os
idioms:
- Ye gods ¡oh dioses!
2.
det. - forma arcaica del término The (el, la los)
Svenska (Swedish)
pron. - I, Eder, du/ni (vard.)
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
1. 你们, 你
idioms:
- Ye gods 众神
2. 这, 那, 这些, 那些
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
1.
det. - 這, 那, 這些, 那些
2.
pron. - 你們, 你
idioms:
- Ye gods 眾神
한국어 (Korean)
1.
pron. - you의 고어(2인칭 복수)
2.
det. - the의 고어
日本語 (Japanese)
pron. - あなたに, あなた
idioms:
- Ye gods! おお神々よ
العربيه (Arabic)
(ضمير) انتم, انتن ( لفظ قديم)
עברית (Hebrew)
pron. - אתם/אתן (מיושן)
det. - תווית-היידוע באנגלית (צורה מיושנת)
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Copyrights:
American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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