FromMiddle Englishcleii,cleyye(“clayish; messy; unclean”) [and other forms],[1] either:
The English word is equivalent toclay +-ey(suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘having the quality of’), with the-e- included to avoid the occurrence of-yy.[4]
Sense 4 (“of the human body, as contrasted with the soul”) may allude to thebiblical account of God creating man from earth; seeGenesis 2:7 (King James Version; spelling modernized): “And theLord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”[5]
clayey (comparativeclayier,superlativeclayiest)
- Composed ofclay orcontaining (much) clay;clayish.
- Synonyms:argillaceous,argillous
- Antonyms:nonclayey,unclayed
1812,Antonio de Alcedo, “DEMERARA”, in G[eorge] A[lexander] Thompson, transl.,The Geographical and Historical Dictionary of America and the West Indies. […], volume II, London: […] [Harding and Wright] for James Carpenter, […],→OCLC,page13, column 2:The shores of the rivers and creeks are chiefly planted with coffee, to the distance of about 30 miles from the sea; thence 30 miles farther up, the soil becomesclayey and more fit for sugar[-]canes.
2004,Richard Fortey, “Alps”, inThe Earth: An Intimate History, London:HarperCollinsPublishers,→ISBN,pages99 and 101:Limestone, of course, is calcium carbonate, and thus chemically utterly different in composition from theclayey rocks below and the hard, pebbly ones above.
- Covered ordirtied with clay.
1837,Thomas Carlyle, “Astreæa Redux”, inThe French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London:Chapman and Hall,→OCLC, book II (The Paper Age),page31:Wheat-fields, one would think, cannot come to grow untilled; no man madeclayey, or made weary thereby;—unless machinery will do it?
- Resembling clay;claylike,clayish.
- Synonym:bolar
- Antonym:nonclayey
1697,[William] Congreve,The Mourning Bride, a Tragedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […],→OCLC, Act II,page17:Death, grim Death, will fold / Me, in his leaden Arms, and preſs me cloſe / To his coldclayie Breaſt:[…]
- (figuratively) Of thehumanbody, ascontrasted with thesoul;bodily, human,mortal.
a.1587 (date written), Phillip Sidney [i.e.,Philip Sidney],An Apologie for Poetrie. […], London: […] [James Roberts] for Henry Olney, […], published1595,→OCLC; republished asEdward Arber, editor,An Apologie for Poetrie (English Reprints), London:[Alexander Murray & Son],1 April 1868,→OCLC,page29:This purifing of wit, this enritching of memory, enabling of iudgment, and enlarging of conceyt, which commonly we call learning,[…] the final end is, to lead and draw vs to as high a perfection, as our degenerate ſoules made worſe by theirclayey lodgings, can be capable of.
1796, Robert Southey, “Book the Eighth”, inJoan of Arc, an Epic Poem, Bristol: […] Bulgin and Rosser, forJoseph Cottle, […], andCadell and Davies, and G. G. and J. Robinson, […],→OCLC,page306:[A]mid these tombs, / Cold as theirclayey tenants, know, my heart / Must never grow to stone!
1842,Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Some Account of the Greek Christian Poets”, inEssays on the Greek Christian Poets and the English Poets, New York, N.Y.: James Miller, (successor to C. S. Francis & Co.,) […], published1863,→OCLC,page50:To low estate ofclayey creature, / See, I bring the beggar's meed, / Nutriment beyond the need!- An English translation by Browning of “Soul and Body”, a poem byGregory of Nazianzus.
1851 November 14,Herman Melville, “Nightgown”, inMoby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.:Harper & Brothers; London:Richard Bentley,→OCLC,pages59–60:[W]hen between sheets, whether by day or by night, and whether asleep or awake, I have a way of always keeping my eyes shut, in order the more to concentrate the snugness of being in bed. Because no man can ever feel his own identity aright except his eyes be closed; as if, darkness were indeed the proper element of our essences, though light be more congenial to ourclayey part.
composed of clay or containing (much) clay
covered or dirtied with clay
- ^“cleiī,adj.”, inMED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.:University of Michigan,2007.
- ^“clei,n.”, inMED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.:University of Michigan,2007.
- ^“-ī̆,suf.”, inMED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.:University of Michigan,2007.
- ^“clayey,adj.”, inOED Online
, Oxford:Oxford University Press, March 2021;“clayey,adj.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022. - ^The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […],1611,→OCLC,Genesis2:7, column 2: “And theLord God formed man of the duſt of the ground, & breathed into his noſtrils the breath of life, and man became a liuing soule.”
, Oxford:Oxford University Press, March 2021;“clayey,adj.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.