hey

See also: Hey

English

Pronunciation

  • enPR: hā, IPA(key): /heɪ/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Homophone: hay
  • Rhymes: -eɪ

Etymology 1

From Middle English hey, hei, also without h- in ey, from Old English *hē, ēa (interjection), attested as first element in hēlā, ēalā (“O!, alas!, oh!, lo!”). Cognate with Dutch hé, hei (“hi, hey”), German hei (“hey, wow”), Danish and Swedish hej (“hello, hey”), Faroese hey (“hey, hello”), Old Norse, Icelandic and Norwegian hei (“hey”), Romanian hei, see heigh. Probably a natural expression, as may be inferred from its presence with similar meaning in many other unrelated languages: for example, Burmese ဟေး (he:), Finnish hei, Unami hè, and Mandarin 哎 (āi), and various sound-alikes as Ancient Greek εἴα (eía) and Latin eia, eho, Sanskrit हे (he). See also hello.

Alternative forms

Interjection

hey

  1. An exclamation to get attention.
    Hey, look at this!
    Hey! Listen!
  2. A protest or reprimand.
    Hey! Stop that!
  3. An expression of surprise.
    Hey! This is new!
  4. (US, Australia, Canada) An informal greeting, similar to hi.
    Hey! How's it going?
  5. A request for repetition or explanation; an expression of confusion (see also eh, huh).
    Hey? How's that?
  6. A meaningless beat marker or extra, filler syllable in song lyrics.
    The chorus is nana na na, nana na na hey hey hey, goodbye".

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

See also

Noun

hey (plural heys)

  1. (country dancing) A choreographic figure in which the dancers weave between one another.

Translations

Etymology 2

See he.

Noun

hey (plural heys)

  1. Alternative spelling of he (Hebrew letter)

Anagrams

Faroese

Interjection

hey

  1. hi, hey, hello
    hey aftur! ― hello again!
    Synonyms: halló, góðan morgun, góðan dag, gott kvøld
    Antonyms: farvæl, vit síggjast

Icelandic

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /heiː/
  • Rhymes: -eiː

Etymology 1

From Old Norse hey, from Proto-Germanic *hawją.

Noun

hey n (genitive singular heys, nominative plural hey)

  1. (usually uncountable) hay
Declension

Etymology 2

Interjection

hey

  1. hey

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English hē, from Proto-Germanic *hiz (“this, this one”).

Pronoun

hey

  1. Alternative form of he

References

Etymology 2

From Old English hīe, hī.

Pronoun

hey

  1. Alternative form of he

References

Portuguese

Verb

hey

  1. Obsolete spelling of hei

Somali

Verb

hey

  1. possess
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