And one of theym... cam in to an hows and axed for mete and specyally he axyd aftereggys, and the goode wyf answerde that she could speke no Frenshe. And the marchaunt was angry, for he also coude speke no Frenshe, but wolde have haddeegges; and she understode hym not. And thenne at laste a-nother sayd that he wolde haveeyren. Then the good wyf sayd that she understod hym wel. Loo, what sholde a man in thyse dayes now wryte,egges, oreyren? Certaynly it is hard to playse every man, by-cause of dyversite and chaunge of langage.
Take brothe of capons withoute herbes, and brekeeyren, and cast into the pot, and make a crudde therof, and colour hit with saffron, and then presse oute the brothe and kerve it on leches; and then take swete creme of almondes, or of cowe mylk, and boyle hit;[…]
1975 August 23, Judie Black, “Ey has a word for it”, inChicago Tribune, section 1, page12:
Eir sentences would sound smoother sinceey wouldn't clutter them with the old sexist pronouns. And ifey should trip up in the new usage,ey would only haveemself to blame.
1996 December 22, Shirley Worth, “New To Yoga”, inalt.yoga[3] (Usenet), message-ID <32BDCA0C.6C8@worth.org>:
I'm not familiar with this book, but I encourage Marksmill to look for it-- and whileey is at it, to also look at a number of other books.
1997 November 25, Scott Robert Dawson, “Who Pays for Cellular Calls”, inalt.cellular[4] (Usenet), message-ID <347acf56.333719@news.interlog.com>:
If a mobile user is far fromeir home area,ey will pay a long-distance fee for carriage of the call *from*eir home area, just as a caller would pay long-distance on a call *to* that area.
For more quotations using this term, seeCitations:ey.
Now it will be seen that each of the three small streamlets named forms, at its junction with the larger river into which it flows, aney, or island, of this latter kind — Crip's-ey, Dom's-ey, and Pin's-ey, respectively; and I suggest that, from these threeeys, each of the three streams indicated derived the final element of its name.
2009, Julie Wileman,War and Rumours of War, page81:
Runnymede Bridge is situated on an 'ey' – a small gravel islet close to the river bank.
A place that has a name ending in "-ey" because it is or was located at such an island.
1888 January 28, Walter de Gray Birch, “WASA, ISIS, OCK”, inAcademy and Literature, volume33, number821, page63:
Among the manyeys, eyots, or islands, clustering about Oxford, at or near the confluence of the Isis and Cherwell, viz., Binsey, Botley, Hinksey, Iffley, Osney, Oxey, Pixey, &c., there are two, vis., Osney and Oxey, which manifestly enshrine this rivername.
1924, Arthur Hadrian Allcroft,Downland Pathways, page76:
In Saxon the word ey meant peninsula as well as island, and there are plenty of othereys about —Langney and Hydeney and Horsey to wit, Chilly and Rickney and Northeye and Mountney.
2018, Bob Gilbert,Ghost Trees: Nature and People in a London Parish:
Bermondsey, Stepney, Hackney; there are many of these 'eys' in London and they were all once islands, or higher, dryer points in the surrounding marshlands.
JULIO.(Moves away.) No walking. I told you I’m not walking. / INES. You walked yesterday after the exercises. / JULIO. I can’t today. / INES. Then I’m going outside to smoke! / JULIO.Ey, don’t get angry!
The night vault rests for a while and Tony springs to life, shifting his weight to the balls of his feet, and hurling a fusillade of punches which fall inches from my tummy. ‘Ey,ey stop that will you,’ Liam says, pulling him away from me, ‘Remember what we said about all that? A time and a placeey son?’
Lad? Chris – that’s yer name, isn’t it? Chris, just help a feller out,ey? I’ve got me little girl ter think of.[…] There’s a mug tree stood on the counter and I check it fer hangin keyrings. Nowt. /Ey.Ey, stop that. Get outta there, yer little sod.
The inflections of the strong and weak nounsey andeyja tend to be mixed together:
The weak inflection is more common in the nominative, accusative and dative singular (nom.eyja(n), acc.eyju(na), dat.eyju(nni)), but the strong inflections are also used (nom.ey(in), acc.ey(na), dat.ey(nni) oreyju(nni)). The strongey(in), however, is rare compared to weakeyja(n).
The strong genitive (eyjar(innar)) is dominant compared to the weak (eyju(nnar)).
The strong inflection is more common in the nominative/accusative plural (eyjar(nar)) but the dative and genitive plurals are indistinguishable for both strong and weak forms (dat.eyjum/eyjunum, gen.eyja(nna)).
The alternative archaic strong dative singulareyju(nni) is indistinguishable from the weak form.
All pluralplace names for islands use the strongeyjar rather than the weakeyjur:Færeyjar,Vestmannaeyjar. Singular place names, however, may be based oney oreyja.
Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989),Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies,→ISBN(Available atMálið.is under the “Eldri orðabækur” tab.)
Kristín Bjarnadóttir, editor (2002–2025), “ey”, inBeygingarlýsing íslensks nútímamáls [The Database of Modern Icelandic Inflection] (in Icelandic), Reykjavík: The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino (2016),Ortograpiya di Kankanaëy [Kankanaey Orthography][6] (in Kankanaey and Tagalog),→ISBN, pages10-11
Morice Vanoverbergh (1933), “ey”, inA Dictionary of Lepanto Igorot or Kankanay. As it is spoken at Bauco (Linguistische Anthropos-Bibliothek; XII)[7], Mödling bei Wien, St. Gabriel, Österreich: Verlag der Internationalen Zeitschrift „Anthropos“,→OCLC, page153
Allen, Larry (2021), “ey”, inKankanaey – English Dictionary, Summer Institute of Linguistics
Wallace, Judy (2018), “ey”, inNorthern Kankanay – English Dictionary, Summer Institute of Linguistics
^Brunner, Karl (1963), Grahame Johnson, transl.,An Outline of Middle English Grammar[1],Oxford:Basil Blackwell, translation ofAbriss der mittelenglischen Grammatik (in German),→ISBN,→OCLC,§ 42,page51; reprinted1965.
^Berndt, Rolf (1968), “Bemerkungen zur geschichtlichen Entwicklung der englischen Sprache”, inZeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, volume16, number 2,Leipzig:VEB Verlag Enzyklopädie, page166.
^Mossé, Fernand (1952), “V. The Substantives”, in James A. Walker, transl.,A Handbook of Middle English[2], I. Grammar: Part Two. The Forms,Baltimore:Johns Hopkins Press, translation ofManuel du l'Anglais de Moyen Age des Origines au XIVe Siècle (in French),→OCLC,§ 51,page59: “Middle English knew only the double pluralei-r-en”.
