wey

Etymology

From Middle English weie, waie, weihe, wæȝe, from Old English wǣġ, wǣġe (“a weight; a tool for weighing, balance, scale”), from Proto-Germanic *wēgiz, *wēgǭ (“weight; scale”), from Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ- (“to move, bring, transport”). Cognate with German Waage (“weight”), Icelandic vág (“a weight”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: wā, IPA^(key): /weɪ/
• Rhymes: -eɪ
• Homophones: way, weigh, whey (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Noun

wey (plural weys)

1. (uncommon, archaic) An old English measure of weight containing 224 pounds; equivalent to 2 hundredweight.
   • c. 1376, William Langland, The Vision of Piers Plowman, Version B, Passus 5, Line 91:

     Than though I hadde this wouke ywonne a weye of Essex cheese.

   • 1843, The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge‎, volume 27, page 202:

     Seven pounds make a clove, 2 cloves a stone, 2 stone a tod, 6½ tods a wey, 2 weys a sack, 12 sacks a last. […] It is to be observed here that a sack is 13 tods, and a tod 28 pounds, so that the sack is 364 pounds.

   • 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Volume 4, p. 208:

     Cheese and salt are purchased by the wey of two hundredweight, or by the stone of fourteen pounds.

   • 1858, Peter Lund Simmonds, The Dictionary of Trade Products, Manufacturing, and Technical Terms‎, page 410:

     WEY, WEIGH, an English measure of weight; for wool, equal to 6½ tods of 28 lbs.; a load or five quarters of wheat; 40 bushels of salt, each 56 lbs.; 32 cloves of cheese, each 7 lbs.; 48 bushels of oats and barley; 2 to 3 cwt. of butter.

Anagrams

• Wye, wye, yew

Conjunction

wey

1. that

Pronoun

wey

1. who

Etymology

Variant of güey, representing the relaxed pronunciation of the /gw/ sounds.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwei/, [ˈwei̯]
• Rhymes: -ej

Noun

wey m, f (plural weyes)

1. (Mexico, colloquial slang) chump, punk, dumbass, idiot, jerk
2. (colloquial) dude, guy, buddy