yea

English

Etymology

From Middle English ye, ȝea, from Old English ġēa, iā (“yea, yes”), from Proto-Germanic *ja (“yes, thus, so”), from Proto-Indo-European *yē (“already”). Cognate with Scots yea, ya (“yes, yea, indeed, so”), Saterland Frisian ja, jee (“yes”), West Frisian ja (“yes”), Dutch ja (“yes”), German ja (“yes, yea”), Swedish ja, jo (“yes, well, indeed”), Icelandic já (“yes”), Latin iam (“now, already”), Italian già (“now, already”), Spanish ya (“now, already”). Doublet of yeah.

Pronunciation

  • enPR: yā, IPA(key): /jeɪ/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪ
  • Homophone: yay

Adverb

yea (not comparable)

  1. (dated) Yes.
    • Bishop Joseph Hall
      Yea, have not too many amongst us added to their unreformation an impudence in sinning?
  2. Thus, so (now often accompanied by a hand gesture).
    The pony was yea high.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Conjunction

yea

  1. (archaic) Or even, or more like, nay. Introduces a stronger and more appropriate expression than the preceding one.
    • 1604, Jeremy Corderoy, A Short Dialogve, wherein is Proved, that No Man can be Saved without Good VVorkes, 2nd edition, Oxford: Printed by Ioseph Barnes, and are to be sold in Paules Church-yard at the signe of the Crowne, by Simon Waterson, OCLC 55185654, page 40:
      [N]ow ſuch a liue vngodly, vvithout a care of doing the wil of the Lord (though they profeſſe him in their mouths, yea though they beleeue and acknowledge all the Articles of the Creed, yea haue knowledge of the Scripturs) yet if they liue vngodly, they deny God, and therefore ſhal be denied, […]
    • c. 1633, The Flea, by John Donne
      O stay, three lives in one flea spare,
      Where we almost, yea, more than married are.

Interjection

yea

  1. (in some dialects of American English, including Southern, Western, and African American Vernacular) Yeah, right, yes.
  2. Misspelling of yay.
  3. Misspelling of yeah.

Noun

yea (plural yeas)

  1. An affirmative vote, usually but not always spoken
    • 2009, January 6, Still Broken After All These Years‎:
      Recently senators could fax in their yeas or nays to the committee chairman.

Antonyms

  • (An affirmative vote): nay

Anagrams

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