dey

See also: Dey and deþ

English

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /deɪ/
  • Rhymes: -eɪ
  • Homophone: day

Etymology 1

From Middle English deye, deie, daie, from Old English dǣġe (“maker of bread; baker; dairy-maid”), from Proto-Germanic *daigijǭ (“kneader of bread, maid”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- (“to knead, form, build”). Cognate with Swedish deja, Icelandic deigja (“dairy-maid”); compare dairy, dough, lady.

Alternative forms

Noun

dey (plural deys)

  1. (Britain dialectal, Scotland) A servant who has charge of the dairy; a dairymaid.

Etymology 2

From French dey, from Turkish dayı.

Noun

dey (plural deys)

  1. The ruler of the Regency of Algiers (now Algeria) under the Ottoman Empire.
    • 1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York Review Books 2006, p. 29:
      the reigning Dey of Algiers (half of whose twenty-eight predecessors are said to have met violent ends) lost his temper with the French consul, struck him in the face with a fly-whisk, and called him ‘a wicked, faithless, idol-worshipping rascal’.

Etymology 3

Pronoun

dey

  1. Eye dialect spelling of they, representing African American Vernacular English.
  2. Eye dialect spelling of there, representing African American Vernacular English.

References

  • dey in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • “dey” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2018.

Anagrams

Icelandic

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /teiː/
  • Rhymes: -eiː

Verb

dey

  1. inflection of deyja:
    1. first-person singular present indicative
    2. second-person singular imperative

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

dey

  1. Alternative form of day

Etymology 2

Pronoun

dey

  1. Alternative form of þei

References

Nigerian Pidgin

Alternative forms

Verb

dey

  1. is, are
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