Source etymology 1
Original entry ↗To greet with a "hey"
An exclamation to get attention. · A protest or reprimand. · An expression of surprise. · An informal greeting, similar to hi.
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”), Polish hej (“hey, hello”), Romanian hei, Russian эй (ej, “hey”); 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 εἶα (eîa) and Latin eia, eho, Sanskrit हे (he). See also hello.
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
- Inherited-form mentionheyenm
- Inherited-form mention*hēang
- Cognate mentionhénl
- Cognate mentionheide · hey, wow
- Cognate mentionhejsv · hello, hey
- Cognate mentionheyfo · hey, hello
- Cognate mentionheino · hey
- Cognate mentionhejpl · hey, hello
- Cognate mentionheiro
- Cognate mentionэйru · hey
- Cognate mentionဟေးmy
- Cognate mentionheifi
- Cognate mention哎cmn
- Cognate mentionεἶαgrc
- Cognate mentioneiala
- Cognate mentionहेsa
This page abbreviates 3 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
"templates": [
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "hey"
},
"expansion": "Middle English hey"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ang",
"3": "*hē"
},
"expansion": "Old English *hē"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "nl",
"2": "hé"
},
"expansion": "Dutch hé"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "de",
"2": "hei",
"t": "hey, wow"
},
"expansion": "German hei (“hey, wow”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "da",
"2": "-"
},
"expansion": "Danish"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "sv",
"2": "hej",
"t": "hello, hey"
},
"expansion": "Swedish hej (“hello, hey”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "fo",
"2": "hey",
"t": "hey, hello"
},
"expansion": "Faroese hey (“hey, hello”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "non",
"2": "-"
},
"expansion": "Old Norse"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "is",
"2": "-"
},
"expansion": "Icelandic"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "no",
"2": "hei",
"t": "hey"
},
"expansion": "Norwegian hei (“hey”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "pl",
"2": "hej",
"3": "",
"t": "hey, hello"
},
"expansion": "Polish hej (“hey, hello”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "ro",
"2": "hei"
},
"expansion": "Romanian hei"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "ru",
"2": "эй",
"t": "hey"
},
"expansion": "Russian эй (ej, “hey”)"
},
{
"name": "sound-symbolic",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"title": "natural"
},
"expansion": "natural"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "my",
"2": "ဟေး"
},
"expansion": "Burmese ဟေး (he:)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "fi",
"2": "hei"
},
"expansion": "Finnish hei"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "cmn",
"2": "哎",
"tr": "āi"
},
"expansion": "Mandarin 哎 (āi)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "grc",
"2": "εἶα"
},
"expansion": "Ancient Greek εἶα (eîa)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "la",
"2": "eia"
},
"expansion": "Latin eia"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "sa",
"2": "हे"
},
"expansion": "Sanskrit हे (he)"
}
],
"links": [
[
"hey",
"hey#Middle_English"
],
[
"hei",
"hei#Middle_English"
],
[
"ey",
"ey#Middle_English"
],
[
"*hē",
"Reconstruction:Old English/he"
],
[
"ēa",
"ea#Old_English"
],
[
"hēlā",
"hela#Old_English"
],
[
"ēalā",
"eala#Old_English"
],
[
"hé",
"hé#Dutch"
],
[
"hei",
"hei#Dutch"
],
[
"hei",
"hei#German"
],
[
"hej",
"hej#Swedish"
],
[
"hey",
"hey#Faroese"
],
[
"hei",
"hei#Norwegian"
],
[
"hej",
"hej#Polish"
],
[
"hei",
"hei#Romanian"
],
[
"эй",
"эй#Russian"
],
[
"heigh",
"heigh#English"
],
[
"ဟေး",
"ဟေး#Burmese"
],
[
"hei",
"hei#Finnish"
],
[
"哎",
"哎#Mandarin"
],
[
"εἶα",
"εἶα#Ancient_Greek"
],
[
"eia",
"eia#Latin"
],
[
"eho",
"eho#Latin"
],
[
"हे",
"हे#Sanskrit"
],
[
"hello",
"hello#English"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "verb",
"glosses": [
"To greet with a \"hey\""
],
"tags": [
"informal"
],
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{
"pos": "intj",
"glosses": [
"An exclamation to get attention.",
"A protest or reprimand.",
"An expression of surprise.",
"An informal greeting, similar to hi."
],
"tags": [
"informal"
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"omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
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"links": 0,
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"descendants": 0,
"lexicalRecords": 0,
"lexicalSenses": 3,
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}
}